d to be attended by link-boys; they would have hurt our sense
of independence. Possessed of a sovereign faith that, by dint of
resolution, I should ultimately penetrate to the great square enclosing
the Bench, I walked with the air of one who had the map of London in
his eye and could thread it blindfold. Temple was thereby deceived into
thinking that I must somehow have learnt the direction I meant to take,
and knew my way, though at the slightest indication of my halting and
glancing round his suspicions began to boil, and he was for asking some
one the name of the ground we stood on: he murmured, 'Fellows get lost
in London.' By this time he clearly understood that I had come to London
on purpose: he could not but be aware of the object of my coming, and I
was too proud, and he still too delicate, to allude to it.

The fog choked us. Perhaps it took away the sense of hunger by filling
us as if we had eaten a dinner of soot. We had no craving to eat until
long past the dinner-hour in Temple's house, and then I would rather
have plunged into a bath and a bed than have been requested to sit at a
feast; Temple too, I fancy. We knew we were astray without speaking of
it. Temple said, 'I wish we hadn't drunk that champagne.' It seemed to
me years since I had tasted the delicious crushing of the sweet bubbles
in my mouth. But I did not blame them; I was after my father: he, dear
little fellow, had no light ahead except his devotion to me: he must
have had a touch of conscious guilt regarding his recent behaviour,
enough to hold him from complaining formally. He complained of a London
without shops and lights, wondered how any one could like to come to it
in a fog, and so forth; and again regretted our having drunk champagne
in the morning; a sort of involuntary whimpering easily forgiven to him,
for I knew he had a gallant heart. I determined, as an act of signal
condescension, to accost the first person we met, male or female, for
Temple's sake. Having come to this resolve, which was to be an open
confession that I had misled him, wounding to my pride, I hoped eagerly
for the hearing of a footfall. We were in a labyrinth of dark streets
where no one was astir. A wretched dog trotted up to us, followed at our
heels a short distance, and left us as if he smelt no luck about us; our
cajoleries were unavailing to keep that miserable companion.

'Sinbad escaped from the pit by tracking a lynx,' I happened to remark.
Temple woul