CHAPTER XI
AS GUEST AND COMPANION
IT was a joyous, though at times a somewhat exciting, experience, to accompany Morris on a sight-seeing expedition, especially when amidst unfamiliar surroundings. One had a sense of pleasant unrest, a feeling of expectancy that some interesting adventure was on hand, that something unwonted would occur. One forgot oneself listening to his talk and observing his movements, and one's attention was kept constantly on the alert.
But always his companionship was delightful, and the hours spent with him left an unfading fragrance in the mind.
I am now about to tell of a Sunday I had with him in Glasgow when, as he announced to me, he was going to have 'a day off,' except for his evening lecture and a couple of hours at his 'Odyssey,' and that I might do with him as I pleased. During his earlier visits he was usually the guest of some friend, such as Professor John Nichol, Dr. Dyer (then prominent in the Scottish Co-operative Movement), or R.F. Muirhead, M.A., one of the members of our League. But he preferred to stay at an hotel, where he could be more at liberty to give his spare time to writing and where he could more freely invite workmen comrades to have a chat with him. On this occasion he had arranged to put up at the Central Station Hotel, but had agreed to be my guest at my mother's house during the day.
I met him on his arrival by the night mail train from
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