"Brilliantly bright! A day of glorious sunshine! It began well for our noble, suffering ally. From daybreak (literally) money poured into the fund, and it is estimated that the final result will be a collection of £8000. Everybody's heart was in the giving.

"The town simply seethed with excitement all day long. By late afternoon staid businessmen, who bought not one flag but several, sold one every time their put foot out of their offices during the day, looked like fancy-dress figures, so trimmed were they with flags and Belgian colours.

"Everybody wore or carried their purchases. Motor cars that were ablaze with red, gold, and black, carrying fair collectors to various points of vantage, were so numerous and so beautiful.

"All day long generous crowds surged round different points at which their theatrical favourites were stationed, and when Madame Melba arrived at the Block Arcade to sell a box of cigarettes there was not room for a sardine to squeeze itself into the throng.

"So it went on from dawn until late at night. Flags, and bands, and cheers, and crowds, to the accompaniment of streams of money. Oh, it was fine! If only the poor starving people in Belgium could have seen it all. What wonderful heart it would have put into them."