But as this man was a Briton himself these other Britons harkened
to his sputterings, for England, you know, grants the right of
free speech to all Englishmen - and denies it to all Englishwomen.
The settled Englishman declines always to be jostled out of his
hereditary state of intense calm. They tell of a man who dashed
into the reading room of the Savage Club with the announcement
that a lion was loose on the Strand - a lion that had escaped from
a traveling caravan and was rushing madly to and fro, scaring
horses and frightening pedestrians.
"Great excitement! Most terrific, old dears - on my word!" he added,
addressing the company.
Over the top of the Pink Un an elderly gentleman of a full habit
of life regarded him sourly.
"Is that any reason," he inquired, "why a person should rush into
a gentleman's club and kick up such a deuced hullabaloo?"
The first man - he must have been a Colonial - gazed at the other
man in amazement.
"Well," he asked, "what would you do if you met a savage lion loose
on the Strand?"
"Sir, I should take a cab!"
And after meeting an Englishman or two of this type I am quite
prepared to say the story might have been a true one.
