The Captain stopped near a cab-stand. He put his hand in his pocket, he
drew out his purse, he passed his fingers over the net-work; the purse
slipped again into the pocket, and as if with a heroic effort, my uncle
drew up his head and walked on sturdily.

"Where next?" thought I. "Surely home! No, he is pitiless!"

The Captain stopped not till he arrived at one of the small theatres in
the Strand; then he read the bill, and asked if half price was begun.
"Just begun," was the answer, and the Captain entered. I also took a
ticket and followed. Passing by the open doors of a refreshment-room, I
fortified myself with some biscuits and soda-water; and in another
minute, for the first time in my life, I beheld a play. But the play
did not fascinate me. It was the middle of some jocular after piece;
roars of laughter resounded round me. I could detect nothing to laugh
at, and sending my keen eyes into every corner, I perceived at last, in
the uppermost tier, one face as saturnine as my own.--Eureka! It was
the Captain's! "Why should he go to a play if he enjoys it so little?"
thought I; "better have spent a shilling on a cab, poor old fellow!"

But soon came smart-looking men, and still smarter-looking ladies,
around the solitary corner of the poor Captain. He grew fidgety--he
rose--he vanished. I left my place, and stood without the box to watch
for him. Downstairs he stumped,--I recoiled into the shade; and after
standing a moment or two, as in doubt, he entered boldly the
refreshment-room or saloon.

Now, since I had left that saloon it had become crowded, and I slipped
in unobserved. Strange was it, grotesque yet pathetic, to mark the old