ilip's room got a lot of amusement out
of watching the manoeuvres of one man or another to stay behind, and they
made small bets on which would succeed. At midnight the people were turned
out of the Harrington Arms at the end of the street, and soon after they
all went to bed: Bell, who slept nearest the door, made his way across the
room by jumping from bed to bed, and even when he got to his own would not
stop talking. At last everything was silent but for the steady snoring of
the soldier, and Philip went to sleep.

He was awaked at seven by the loud ringing of a bell, and by a quarter to
eight they were all dressed and hurrying downstairs in their stockinged
feet to pick out their boots. They laced them as they ran along to the
shop in Oxford Street for breakfast. If they were a minute later than
eight they got none, nor, once in, were they allowed out to get themselves
anything to eat. Sometimes, if they knew they could not get into the
building in time, they stopped at the little shop near their quarters and
bought a couple of buns; but this cost money, and most went without food
till dinner. Philip ate some bread and butter, drank a cup of tea, and at
half past eight began his day's work again.

"First to the right. Second on the left, madam."

Soon he began to answer the questions quite mechanically. The work was
monotonous and very tiring. After a few days his feet hurt him so that he
could hardly stand: the thick soft carpets made them burn, and at night
his socks were painful to remove. It was a common complaint, and his
fellow 'floormen' told him that socks and boots just rotted away from the
continual sweating. All the men in his room suffered in the same fashion,
and they relieved the pain by sleeping with their feet outside the
bed-clothes. At first Philip could not walk at all and was obliged to
spend a good many of his evenings in the sitting-room at Harrington Street
with his feet in a pail of cold water. His companion on these occasions
was Bell, the lad in the haberdashery, who stayed in often to arrange the
stamps he collected. As he fastened them with little pieces of stamp-paper
he whistled monotonously.

CIV

The social evenings took place on alternate Mondays. There was one at the
beginning of Philip's second week at Lynn's. He arranged to go with one of
the women in his department.

"Meet 'em 'alf-way," she said, "same as I do."

This was Mrs. Hodges, a little woman of five-and-for