have been those two or three glasses of sound wine.”
“Shall I tell you what it is?” I said, looking him full in the face, with eyes that I dare say were wild enough with fever and insomnia. “It’s the burning of the Lady Jermyn!” I cried. “It’s the faces and the shrieks of the women; it’s the cursing and the fighting of the men; it’s boat-loads struggling in an oily sea; it’s husbands and wives jumping overboard together; it’s men turned into devils, it’s hell-fire afloat - “
“Stop! stop! ” he
but I could not deceive myself in my present mood. I remembered the steps, the steps - the stopping when I stopped - the drawing away in the crowded streets - the closing up in quieter places. Why had I never looked round? Why? Because till to-day I had thought it mere vulgar curiosity; because a few