ere active in our idleness, and that there was
no lack of employment. Then as evening came on there were the playhouses
to draw us, Dorset Gardens, Lincoln's Inn, Drury Lane, and the
Queen's--among the four there was ever some amusement to be found.'

'There, at least, your time was well employed,' said I; 'you could
not hearken to the grand thoughts or lofty words of Shakespeare or of
Massinger without feeling some image of them in your own soul.'

Sir Gervas chuckled quietly. 'You are as fresh to me, Micah, as this
sweet country air,' said he. 'Know, thou dear babe, that it was not to
see the play that we frequented the playhouse.'

'Then why, in Heaven's name?' I asked.

'To see each other,' he answered. 'It was the mode, I assure you, for a
man of fashion to stand with his back turned to the stage from the
rise of the curtain to the fall of it. There were the orange wenches to
quiz--plaguey sharp of tongue the hussies are, too--and there were the
vizards of the pit, whose little black masks did invite inquiry, and
there were the beauties of the town and the toasts of the Court,
all fair mark for our quizzing-glasses. Play, indeed! S'bud, we had
something better to do than to listen to alexandrines or weigh the
merits of hexameters! 'Tis true that if La Jeune were dancing, or if
Mrs. Bracegirdle or Mrs. Oldfield came upon the boards, we would hum
and clap, but it was the fine woman that we applauded rather than the
actress.'

'And when the play was over you went doubtless to supper and so to bed?'

'To supper, certainly. Sometimes to the Rhenish House, sometimes to
Pontack's in Abchurch Lane. Every one had his own taste in that matter.
Then there were dice and cards at the Groom Porter's or under the arches
at Covent Garden, piquet, passage, hazard, primero--what you choose.
After that you could find all the world at the coffee-houses, where an
arriere supper was often served with devilled bones and prunes, to drive
the fumes of wine from the head. Zounds, Micah! If the Jews should relax
their pressure, or if this war brings us any luck, you shall come to
town with me and shall see all these things for yourself.'

'Truth to tell, it doth not tempt me much,' I answered. 'Slow and solemn
I am by nature, and in such scenes as you have described I should feel a
very death's head at a banquet.'

Sir Gervas was about to reply, when of a sudden out of the silence
of the night there rose a long-drawn piercing scream,