Colloquial Origin of Retrospective Nar¬rative

this method of narration is one which we find people using in conversation.
Suppose that a friend of yours who is calling upon you says in the course of the conversation :
"I saw your old friend Jameson in London last sum¬mer. I started out one afternoon to visit Westminster Abbey and met him at the door as I was entering."
"Indeed?" you answer ; "I am glad to hear from him again, even indirectly. It is many years since we met, though I used to hear from him occasionally through Colonel Summers."
"By the way, did he ever tell you how he and the Colonel happened to become such warm friends ?"
"I always supposed that the Colonel knew his father as a boy."
"No, they met first in a restaurant on Broadway. They happened to be seated at the same table, and when the Colonel came to pay for his lunch, he found he had no money. His pocket had been picked. Jameson let him have the money, and the Colonel took his name and address. Jameson heard nothing from the old gentle¬man, however, until the following Christmas, when he received a check for one hundred dollars and an invita¬tion to dinner. They saw each other often that winter, and the next summer Jameson visited the World's Fair as the Colonel's guest. There he became acquainted with one of the English Commissioners, who secured for him, upon returning to England, the position he now holds in London with Burton & Co."
"Well, he has been very fortunate in this friendship."
"Yes' and I never could understand why anyone should take such a fancy to him. He always seemed to me a very erratic fellow."
Let us try to analyze this story into its elements.
1.	We have first a situation,—the charaeters, yourself and a friend ; the place, your parlor, prob¬ably; time, evening, perhaps ; the occasion, a call.
2.	Next we have a story told by one of the characters. This story grows naturally out of the conversation and deals with events which happened before the time of the situation. It is, therefore, an example of retrospective narrative.