with three topographical books; I then, at an instrument-maker’s in Holborn, got a sextant and theodolite, and at a grocer’s near the river put into a sack-bag provisions to last me a week or two; at Blackfriars Bridge wharf-station I found a little sharp white steamer of a few tons, which happily was driven by liquid air, so that I had no troublesome fire to light:  and by noon I was cutting my solitary way up the Thames, which flowed as before the ancient Britons were born, and saw it, and built mud-huts there amid the primaeval forest; and afterwards the Romans came, and saw it, and called it Tamesis, or Thamesis.

* * * * *

That night, as I lay asleep on the cabin-cushions of my little boat under the lee of an island at Richmond, I had a clear dream, in which something, or someone, came to me, and asked me a question:  for it said:  ’Why do you go seeking another man?—­that you may fall upon him, and kiss him? or that you may fall upon him, and murder him?’ And I answered sullenly in my dream:  ’I would not murder him.  I do not wish to murder anyone.’

* * * * *

What was essential to me was to know, with certainty, whether I was really alone:  for some instinct began to whisper me:  ’Find that out:  be sure, be sure:  for without the assurance you can never be—­yourself.’

I passed into the great Midland Canal, and went northward, leisurely advancing, for I was in no hurry.  The weather remained very warm, and great part of the country was still dressed in autumn leaves.  I have written, I think, of the terrific character of the tempests witnessed in England since my return:  well, the calms were just as intense and novel.  This observation was forced upon me:  and I could not but be surprised.  There seemed no middle course now:  if there was a wind, it was a storm:  if there was not a storm, no leaf stirred, not a roughening zephyr ran the water.  I was reminded of maniacs that laugh now, and rave now—­but never smile, and never sigh.

On the fourth afternoon I passed by Leicester, and the next morning left my pleasant boat, carrying maps and compass, and at a small station took engine, bound for Yorkshire, where I loitered and idled away two foolish months, sometimes travelling by steam-engine, sometimes by automobile, sometimes by bicycle, and sometimes on foot, till the autumn was quite over.

* * * * *

There were two houses in London to which especially I had thought to go:  one in Harley Street, and one in Hanover Square:  but when it came to the point, I would not; and there was a little embowered home in Yorkshire, where I was born, to which I thought to go:  but I would not, confining myself for many days to the eastern half of the county.