Char-à-banc

To-day, when fish no longer inhabited its tanks, it was a by-word; it was a failure in every other direction; it was despised by its owners. So abject was its condition that recently efforts had actually been made by a hardened and determined ichthyophobe named Clayton to convert it into a garage for char-à-bancs.

At a quarter past eleven a succession of chars-à-bancs brought up specially-invited guests from the station and I went down into the compound to assist at the reception.