Henry Harford

Fan: the Story of a Young Girl's Life

Chapman & Hall, 1892. 3 vols.

Pseudonym of W.H. Hudson.

They were now close to the southern entrance to the Zoological Gardens. "Let's go in through this gate," he said...He had tickets of admission in his pocket, and passing the stile Fan found herself in that incongruous wild animal world set in the midst of a world of humanity. A profusion of flowers met her gaze on every side, but she looked beyond the variegated beds, blossoming shrubs, and grass-plats sprinkled with patches of gay colour, to the huge unfamiliar animal forms of which she caught occasional glimpses in the distance

Fan Affleck has agreed to meet Mr. Eden in Regent's Park to discuss the strange behaviour of some mutual friends.

"Do you know that it is beginning to rain?" he said, holding his umbrella over her head. "We must go in there and wait until it pauses." It was one o'clock, and the refreshment rooms had just opened. Fan was conducted into the glittering dining-saloon, and was persuaded to join her companion in a rather sumptuous luncheon, and to drink a glass of champagne

Readers will be relieved to know that Mr. Eden's intentions, on this occasion at any rate, are fairly honourable; but Fan is in for a nasty surprise on a subsequent outing to Kew Gardens.