for London Bridge, to get lodgings
near there,--seeing that that looked on the map to be about the centre
of the commercial district,--he had traced out the safest route, by
Pentonville Road and City Road down to the Bank. As he trudged and
trudged, however, and no Bank made its appearance, he gradually woke
himself out of that dreamy and contemplative mood. He began to make
inquiries about distance and so forth. The driver of a four-wheeled
cab, his purple bemuddled face lighting up with a dull sort of humour,
gave him a facetious invitation to get inside the tumble-down old
vehicle. The conductors of one or two passing omnibuses hailed him;
and he gathered from their 'Benk! Benk!' that at least he was in the
right direction. But he was not going to spend money causelessly; so
he trudged on.

At length, when he got to the wide square fronting the Royal Exchange,
the solitariness of the place struck him with a strange chill. All the
great buildings closed and deserted; not a habitable-looking house
anywhere. But there were numbers of people passing along the
thoroughfares--mostly groups of young men of about two-and-twenty,
tallow-faced, round-shouldered, wearing over-coats and billycock hats,
and smoking short pipes; and there were crowded omnibuses coming
rolling along (what a difference was this roar and rabble from the
quiet of the Sabbath morning far away there on the northern coast!),
and these people must live somewhere. So again he contentedly trudged
on; down King William Street; over the bridge spanning the misty river;
along the Borough Road; until he arrived at Union Street. He had so
far failed in his quest for lodgings; but in Union Street he espied a
coffee-house; and as he had become both tired and hungry, he entered
the dingy little place, sat down, and ordered a cup of coffee and a
roll and butter.

It was a kind of shelter, after all; though everything was dreadfully
dirty, and there was a heavy odour in the place. The waiter brought
him a greasy newspaper; but he put it aside. Then came his breakfast.
The butter was not touchable; but he reflected that it was a luxury
which he, living on another man's money, had had no right to order.
When he had paid back the 5 pounds, he would consider the question of
butter--though not butter such as this. He ate the dry roll, and
managed to swallow the strangely-tasting coffee; then he fell asleep;
and was eventually wakened by the ringing of churc