LOVE IN LONDON.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13958, 19 July 1909, Page 3

LOVE IN LONDON.

N THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY

(By Philip Gibbs.)

One cannot help falling in love tlvs weather. It is the only proper thing to do when the May sunshine is making a paradise in the parks and filling the London streets witti the glamour of the divine beauty. Yesterday I fell in love sixteen times —at least, I counted up to sixteen, and then lost count. 1 begun shortly after breakfast, when 1 walked in Kensington Gardens. The' Gardens were almost solitary, and I wandered alone in their beaut.-, thrilled by the brilliant jewel-like colours of the tulips—grown from bulbs which came from the country of Dutch "William, who once lived in the quiet old palace here —and bewitched by the long vistas of velvet lawns so brightly green in the morning sunshine, with pale-gold daffodils growing in the grass. The foliage of the trees in the gardens is still exquisite in its first freshness, and every tiny leaf was like an emerald upon its twig, and through these leaves, rustling in a swift breeze, the sunlight spangled the lawns beneath with little patches of light and shade. . The Round Pond was u gleaming mirror of gold, the Serpentiup beyond a silver sword drawn from a green sheath; and it was under the trees between these .waters that I. fell in lov.'. SMITTEN! She was sitting on a seat with a bonk on her lap, but she was not reading. She wore a straw hat with pink roses, and a white lace blouse above a pearl grey skirt. She seemed to me to have a charming English face, serious and simple, aim, as sue looked not at her book, but through the trees to the dancing sunlight beyond. 1 could see that her brown eyes were filled with the beauty of this" London spring, and that her nostrils, so prettily modelled, quivered a little with the iragrancc ot the earth and (lowers. It was a charming picture, and 1 fell in love with" her at once, and then passed on-. The next- time J fell in love yesterdav, if 1 remember lightly, was a few hundred yards further on, beyond Kensington L.arclt-.ns, and in i;lyde Park, where the lucky people were riding iu the Row. 1 leant over the. railing by the soft tan, and watched those horsemen and hor.\c.vom< n, who came at a walk or a quiet canter past my post of observation, careless ol my envious heart. They all iooKed so jolly and happy on their beautiful animals, whose sleeKsides gleamed in the sunlight. Not for them it seems are the cares of life or its sorrows. Young girls with flapping pigtails, good-looking young men. as well-groomed as their horses, old bucks with hawk-noses and grizzled moustaches, stout, buxom ladies, in bowler hats and tight habits, came along the Row, and their laughter and gay voices made music on this morniug in May. One old gentleman on a tall white "horse was speaking loudly as he passed me to a younger friend, and I understood that •"the'infernal Budget would.hit him devilish hard." 1 was rather glad to hear it, but my pleasure at another person's pain was suddenly forgotten by the sight of a girl on a brown mare with white socks, tahc came galloping hard towards me, and her horse's heels tossed the tan up. Her lips were parted a little, and she was smiling straight towards the sun, which glittered on her brown-gold hair and sparkled in dancing eyes, which were as blue, 1 feel sure, as the good sky above. This delightful girl, who passed by exultantly, was filled witii tho ecstacy of youth and the spring, like Diana chasing the stag. That was the second time 1 fell in love yesterday. One cannot help it if such girls as this came out on a May morning in London. JOY IX LIVING.

There were six girls in Bond street—however, enough of these personal reminiscences agreeable as they may be. Others besides myself were inspired to love on this May day in London. Birds were making love in the trees, and scullery maids at the area railings with butcher boys, whose greasy locks in front were like brazen metal on their brows. The spring had made many sweethearts, and London was filled with people, all in their best frocks and suits brand new from the tailors, who a credit to weather which warms the human heart.

Jt was delightful to see young guardsmen and other good-looking boys who have leisure and means giving little luncheons, which cost a lot ot inonev, to best girls or second best girls at Prince's, and the .Savoy, and the Carlton, which were filled with sunshine and with the gaiety of youth. It is good to be young in a London May, young enough for romance and for'laughter, which is as careless of reason as the motes which come dancing

in a .sunbeam. In the evening, when the sun was going down, but when a light was lelt wmch filled the streets with a golden haze, and when the Cireeu Park was mysterious in a purple twilight, anil the colours of the ilouer beds paled into delicate half-tones like the ' satin gowns of the women in a Watteau picture, Piccadilly and Pall -Mall were musical with the tinkling of innumerable cab hells, and with that beautiful rushing noise of many carriage wheels passing swiftly along smooth roads. One caught'quick glimpses into these passing cabs and automobiles with women, whose white arms and shoulders gleamed softly out of encircling lace ami silks, and with men whose hearts were shielded, yet not enough, by hard white breastplates. As the carriages were stemmed in a crush of traffic, held ii]) by the commanding arm of a Loudon policeman, 1 saw clearly' into one of the hansoms. There was a young girl in it in a white dress. She leant forward with her arms on the closed doors, and there was a kind of eager look in her face, which was quite pretty and with her lips and eyes she seemed lo drink in the fragrance and the br-autv of the twilit'ht in Piccadilly. "Oh." she said. '-London!" I have heard people ray London in another

voice, meaning other things, but there is no doubt that to this girl London in. May meant all that is good in life.' There, was a young man by her side, with a bronzed,'clean-shaven, face and grey eyes, the kind of man we like to call a typical Englishman of the best breed. He smiled and said "Pretty good, eh?''and then he put one firm big hand over one of the little white hands grasping the door of the hansom cab, which now moved on in the tide, of traffic. Well, well, many of us can remember drives in hansom cabs on a May-day evening in London, when the cabby had twice his'fare. Perhaps that is why we are sorry for the passing of the cabman, and send subscriptions to Lord Roseberv's fund. BY-THE RIVER.

On the Embankment in the evening I saw the beginning of. another love story, which was appropriate, to such a London May. There was a cool breeze blowing, and the leaves on the path side trees were rustling as though whispering ■ secrets. These leaves glimmered with a-pale green in the lamplight and made a moving tracery of light and shadow, on the pavement beneath. The good old river flowing bywas like liquid silver, but here and there its ripples were blood-red where it reflected the 'head-lights of slow-moving barges and the' • flash-light advertisements on the Surrey shore. A young man and woman leant over the parapet. The woman wore a long black cloak over a white gown, the uniform of a hospital nurse; the man was in a dark suit and a bowler hat, and was like a black shadow. But I could see the woman's face, white as the light of a lamp fell upon it. Her chin was propped on her hand as she leant with her, elbow on the parapet, and I could see a clear-cut profile and long lashes which brushed two cheeks, and I hoard her voice: "What a perfect night!" The black shadow answered her, and said: "It is good to be here,' you and 1!" That was all 1 heard, but it told the story well enough. Later in the evening I strolled out of my house and went for a short walk. The "girl was right. It was a perfect night. I went down a long, narrow walk, close to old Holland House, where trees still stand underneath which there walked, once in the long ago, the ladies of the old Court suburb when George IV. was King. ... Other ladies were here now —mostly servant girls, I think, who had been given an hour or two of freedom from household drudgery. Benevolent borough officials have placed seats round, the trees, and I saw six love stories to each seat. That was almost too much. But servant maids cannot go far away for dalliance, and must take their opportunities where they find them. • An.l who shall deny a lover to a. lass when London is a paradise in the merry month of May? .