them. Their trivial conversation and idle jests did not interest
him, and as soon as coffee was brought he left them, inventing some
engagement in order to get away. As he was going out of the club,
the hall-porter handed him a letter. It was from Herr Winckelkopf,
asking him to call down the next evening, and look at an explosive
umbrella, that went off as soon as it was opened. It was the very
latest invention, and had just arrived from Geneva. He tore the
letter up into fragments. He had made up his mind not to try any
more experiments. Then he wandered down to the Thames Embankment,
and sat for hours by the river. The moon peered through a mane of
tawny clouds, as if it were a lion's eye, and innumerable stars
spangled the hollow vault, like gold dust powdered on a purple dome.
Now and then a barge swung out into the turbid stream, and floated
away with the tide, and the railway signals changed from green to
scarlet as the trains ran shrieking across the bridge. After some
time, twelve o'clock boomed from the tall tower at Westminster, and
at each stroke of the sonorous bell the night seemed to tremble.
Then the railway lights went out, one solitary lamp left gleaming
like a large ruby on a giant mast, and the roar of the city became
fainter.

At two o'clock he got up, and strolled towards Blackfriars. How
unreal everything looked! How like a strange dream! The houses on
the other side of the river seemed built out of darkness. One would
have said that silver and shadow had fashioned the world anew. The
huge dome of St. Paul's loomed like a bubble through the dusky air.

As he approached Cleopatra's Needle he saw a man leaning over the
parapet, and as he came nearer the man looked up, the gas-light
falling full upon his face.