wandering through the vast and intricate shops, galleries, show-rooms

of the place, alone. It was very still; in one place I remember

passing near one of the Tottenham Court Road entrances and listening

to the tapping of boot-heels of the passers-by.

My first visit was to the place where I had seen stockings and

gloves for sale. It was dark, and I had the devil of a hunt after

matches, which I found at last in the drawer of the little cash

desk. Then I had to get a candle. I had to tear down wrappings and

ransack a number of boxes and drawers, but at last I managed to turn

out what I sought; the box label called them lambswool pants, and

lambswool vests. Then socks, a thick comforter, and then I went to

the clothing place and got trousers, a lounge jacket, an overcoat

and a slouch hat--a clerical sort of hat with the brim turned down.

I began to feel a human being again, and my next thought was food.

Upstairs was a refreshment department, and there I got cold meat.

There was coffee still in the urn, and I lit the gas and warmed it

up again, and altogether I did not do badly. Afterwards, prowling

through the place in search of blankets--I had to put up at last

with a heap of down quilts--I came upon a grocery section with

a lot of chocolate and candied fruits, more than was good for me

indeed--and some white burgundy. And near that was a toy department,

and I had a brilliant idea. I found some artificial noses--dummy

noses, you know, and I thought of dark spectacles. But Omniums had

no optical department. My nose had been a difficulty indeed--I had

176

The Invisible Man