ginings would consort best with motion
and the liveliness of the streets. So he put out his lamp, and once
more set forth. The night air freshened his spirits; he sang to himself
as he went along. It was long since he had been to a theatre, and just
now he 'vas so hopelessly poor that he could really afford a little
extravagance. So he was soon sitting before the well-known drop of a
favourite play-house, as full of light-hearted expectancy as a boy who
is enjoying a holiday. The evening was delightful, and passed all too
quickly.

The play over, he was in no mood to go straight home. He lit a cigar
and drifted with the current westward, out of the Strand and into Pall
Mall. A dispute between a cabdriver and his fare induced him to pause
for a moment under the colonnade, and, when the little cluster of
people had moved on, he still stood leaning against one of the pillars,
enjoying the mild air and the scent of his cigar. He felt his elbow
touched, and, looking round with indifference, met the kind of greeting
for which he was prepared. He shook his head and did not reply; then
the sham gaiety of the voice all at once turned to a very real misery,
and the girl began to beg instead of trying to entice him in the
ordinary way. He looked at her again, and was shocked at the ghastly
wretchedness of her daubed face. She was ill, she said, and could
scarcely walk about, but must get money somehow; if she didn't, her
landlady wouldn't let her sleep in the house again, and she had nowhere
else to go to. There could be no mistake about the genuineness of her
story, at all events as far as bodily suffering went. Waymark
contrasted her state with his own, and took out what money he had in
his pocket; it was the change out of a sovereign which he had received
at the theatre, and he gave her it all. She stared, and did not
understand.

"Are you coming with me?" she asked, feeling obliged to make a hideous
attempt at professional coaxing in return for such generosity.

"Good God, no!" Waymark exclaimed. "Go home and take care of yourself."

She thanked him warmly, and turned away at once. As his eye followed
her, he was aware that somebody else had drawn near to him from behind.
This also was a girl, but of a different kind. She was well dressed,
and of graceful, rounded form; a veil almost hid her face, but enough
could be seen to prove that she had good looks.

"That a friend of yours?" she asked abruptly, and her voice was
r