this morning as i stepped out of the station a light drizzle was coming down, but only a very light drizzle, and i set off towards school unconcernedly at only a fair trot. halfway through the botanic gardens one half of an umbrella appeared over my head and a complete stranger invited me to walk with him.

now of course i should have accepted, but being the sort of person who is always startled into inconvenient truthfulness, (which was that i had thought it not worth bothering with fishing about in my backpack for the umbrella which i do in fact habitually carry, and thank you it was most kind of him, but it is quite all right, it is only a tiny patter, really.) it was of course a terrible breach of manners, and of course i recognised the gallantry for what it was, but it would have felt somehow fraudulent to accept an offer on a misapprehension, and yet once having admitted i did have an umbrella the natural thing to do would be to take it out at once, only the patter was so light and damp umbrellas being a nuisance to take into a seminar room i was most loath to have to rummage around for it and only 5minutes more to school. much later it occured to me that by declining his offer on the basis that i already had an umbrella and continuing to walk in the rain i might have given him to think it was because i felt it too forward to share an umbrella with a strange man, and so doing have rebuffed his kindness, which of course i had not intended. cursed honesty!