that business at Oxford, one in the row at Ali Musjid, and the third
went--to-night. But I'll _star_. Every sinner should desire a new Life,"
he added with a sneer.*

* "Starring" is paying for a new "Life" at Pool.

He rose, steady enough now, walked to the door, paused and listened,
heard the excited voices in the card-room still discussing him, slunk
down-stairs, took his hat and greatcoat, and swaggered past the porter.
Mechanically he felt in his pocket, as he went out of the porch, for his
cigarette-case; and he paused at the little fount of fire at the door.

He was thinking that he would never light a cigarette there again.

Presently he remembered, and swore. He had left his case on the table
of the card-room, where Barton had laid it down, and he had not the
impudence to send back for it.

"_Vile damnum!_" he muttered (for he had enjoyed a classical education),
and so disappeared in the frosty night.

CHAPTER II.--In the Snow.

The foul and foggy night of early February was descending, some weeks
after the scene in the Cockpit, on the river and the town. Night was
falling from the heavens; or rather, night seemed to be rising from the
earth--steamed up, black, from the dingy trampled snow of the streets,
and from the vapors that swam above the squalid houses. There was
coal-smoke and a taste of lucifer matches in the air. In the previous
night there had been such a storm as London seldom sees; the powdery,
flying snow had been blown for many hours before a tyrannous northeast
gale, and had settled down, like dust in a neglected chamber, over every
surface of the city. Drifts and "snow-wreathes," as northern folk say,
were lying in exposed places, in squares and streets, as deep as they
lie when sheep are "smoored" on the sides of Sundhope or Penchrist in
the desolate Border-land. All day London had been struggling under her
cold winding-sheet, like a feeble, feverish patient trying to throw off
a heavy white counterpane. Now the counterpane was dirty enough. The
pavements were three inches deep in a rich greasy deposit of mud and
molten ice. Above the round glass or iron coverings of coal-cellars
the foot-passengers slipped, "ricked" their backs, and swore as they
stumbled, if they did not actually fall down, in the filth. Those who
were in haste, and could afford it, travelled, at fancy prices, in
hansoms with two horses driven tandem. The snow still lay comparatively
white on the surface o