A character

Monday, November 5th., Cadogan Square, London.

Took one of the new 6-wheel buses, just to try it, to the Ritz, and walked up Bond Street to the Queen's Hall to look at programmes.

Odd encounter in the street. I was accosted, apropos nothing at all, by a rather disreputable looking character who was doing some sort of work at the front of a business. He asked me if I was a poacher! This in the middle of London! I said I was not, and he explained that my coat and the bag I was carrying looked to him like the sort of things poachers affected. "I was a poacher myself" he said with a knowing wink. Feeling in the mood to humour him I asked why he said was? Apparently because the gamekeepers were wise to him, and he had been in some sort of trouble (he made a gesture suggesting violence) which made it vital that he should not attract the attention of the law. He shrugged philosophically. He then went on to tell me how his senses were more finely attuned than those of the average person (meaning me), due to years of successful poaching, and that he believed himself to be descended from Viking stock. From his general appearance I thought he might be right! Then he said "Well guvner, got to be getting on", and seemed to dismiss me from his attention. I walked on. All this in about five minutes.

At 3 p.m. I was at the Board Meeting of the New Statesman to discuss scheme for getting a push on sales. I promised to write a booklet, to sign it, and to find £200 towards the outlay required for the push, such sum and any further sums to have a prior claim on previous loans.