THE MAN IN THE GREY HAT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 433, 5 September 1908, Page 4

THE MAN IN THE GREY HAT.

Hyde Park Romance.

Last July there appeared in a London morning newspaper the following advertisement: — “ Will Gentleman with light grey Homburg hat who took a seat facing the Serpentine Boathouse last Friday return Wednesday next, same place ?” Wednesday, July 15th, was the appointed day, and elderly ladies with their knitting and crocheting, and old gentlemen of leisure with their newspapers, boatmen, chairmen, and gardeners, prepared to watch what promised to be a pretty little idyll of the Serpentine, Each new arrival wearing a light grey Homburg hat was hailed as the hero of the agony column until he repudiated the insinuation with indignation or amusement, as the case might be. An elderly gentleman of spruce appearance who appeared on the scene about three o’clock was at one time thought to be the lookedfor arrival, and was followed by an admiring crowd of nursemaids with perambulators, as he made a tour of the Serpentine. But the old gentleman, on being approached, denied all knowledge of the advertisement. He had only arrived in England that week from Paris on a visit to the White City.

Although there were many pale grey Homburg hats and many solitary ladies in evidence, the looked-for meeting did not take place.