This reception, I admit, was a great surprise. I had thought to find Bumble rampant. I had expected to be treated with ignominy, if not with derision. I found nothing of either. The attitude of all the officials with whom I came in contact was quite human. There was nothing in their manner that could possibly affront that fundamental dignity born in the meanest of mankind. I was destitute, but that did not impair my inalienable right to human treatment. Throughout my stay I was never once made to feel I was a pauper.

“Have you any money?” asked the young woman.

I handed her my twopence and asked if I might keep my nightdress.

“We supply one,” she answered. “I am sorry, but you must not take anything with you into the ward.”

I solemnly handed over the contents of my packet, together with a dilapidated powder puff, the one thing that had not been taken from me in the doss house.