A PRAYER AT WHITELEY'S
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—A stranger as I am, I yet feel sure that you will forgive my writing to you on one of the reviews given in your paper of last week. It is from "The Man from Blanldeys," Where you .say :
"A customer crossed the threshold before the shop was fully open and on hearing that this was• the first day of a new venture," gave astonishing proof of the solemnity with which the Victorians approached commerce by it once offering up a prayer for Mr. Whiteley's success. Her intercession was fulfilled in a way which probably astonishedb.is customers more than it did Whiteley himself."
That 'lady was my mother. How well I remember her telling me of the incident and noticing as the years. rolled on what an unmistakable answer there was being given to her request.
. You can realise therefore with what interest I have been 'reading your statement of that spiritual fact which never laid dormant in her mind.—Truly yours, • CONSTANCE ROWE née MARSHMAN.
P.S.—En passant I would like to add another fact : It is this, that for many years my mother's first cousin, Mr. Meredith Townsend, was the Editor of your paper. You may have heard his name before now, for I realise that what. I am telling you has passed into ancient history.
20 Holland Park, W.
Previous page
