456 ANGEL PAVEMENT

a better smoke and better for your health, too. I've tried
to get my boy George to start a pipe, but he won't droo
his cigarettes. Gaspers all the time. Too much trouble
just to fill and light a pipe, that's it. I wonder how these.
Kwik-Work people are going on? Always seem to be
busy enough, but I never knew anybody that used their
blades. I stick ta the old-fashioned razor. I've used the
same two for twenty years. I call it a silly waste of
money buying these safety razor blades. No wonder
they give the razors away nowadays. They know once
you've got the razor you'll have to keep on buying their
blades. That's the catch, you see. Well, just wait a
minute. I'll call on my old friend, Mr. Benenden."

But he didn't, because his old friend Mr. Benenden
was not there. Behind the counter was a plump young
woman with bright ginger hair, and if Cleopatra herself
in full regalia had been standing there, Mr. Smeeth
could not have stared at her in greater astonishment

''Yes?** said the plump young woman.

To explain what he wanted in T. Benenden's, when
year after year he had merely had to put his pouch on
the counter, was in itself so novel an action that Mr.
Smeeth found himself at a loss to perform it. "But—
where's Mr. Benenden?"

The young woman smiled. "You a regular customer
here?" she asked.

"I should think I am," said Mr. Smeeth. "I've been
coming in here, week in and week out, for Mr. Benen-
den's own mixture for years. It made me jump to see
anybody else here. What's happened? He's not given
it up, has he?"

"No, he's not given it up/' she explained. "He's in
hospital. He got knocked down by a car last night in