…suet roly-poly — spotted monkey, my kiddie calls it — bathed in butter sauce. Now, to tell you the truth, sir, its lather a favourite pudding of mine, still they need not have given me half of it. And then, sir, when I had helped the last piece down with my fork and was feeling like a stuffed Christmas stocking, on came dessert and wine.”What! You won’t have a glass of port?”Mrs. Montague cried, looking at me with a pained expression in her big, innocent blue eyes. ‘Oh, you must have one, Constable, just one! Come, you can’t refuse a lady!’”The sergeant, ma’am!’ I gasped, for I could hardly articulate a sound owing to the pudding and — potatoes; ‘ if the sergeant smells port, ma’am, I shall be discharged!’”You needn’t be afraid of that. Constable,” Mrs. Montague laughed. ‘We will give you some peppermints, which I can guarantee will…

…There are unquestionably certain people who, in their dreams, witness events that are actually taking place at the time.A lady I knew, Mrs. P., who lived in Gloucester Place, W., dreamed one night she was in a big seaport town, where the streets were all numbered and laid out in blocks according to the American system, and where in one part of the city the tramlines descended over a series of plateaux. The houses were very lofty, and in one street a single hotel occupied an entire block. Shortly after her arrival, the entire town shook and heaved under the influence of a stupendous earthquake; houses collapsed like packs of cards, and, amidst the most appalling shrieks and groans, the whole city burst into a lurid sheet of fire. Everywhere was the wildest confusion and despair. People of all nationalities, from fair-skinned Europeans and yellow-visage Chinese — of which…