He leant his head back against the wall and opened his mouth widely;
something was working in that empty pate of his, and he evidently came to
the conclusion that I meant to best him in some way, for he handed me back
the money. I stamped on the pavement, and, swearing at him, told him to
keep it. Did he imagine I was going to all that trouble for nothing? If
all came to all, perhaps I owed him this shilling; I had just recollected
an old debt; he was standing before an honest man, honourable to his
finger-tips--in short, the money was his. Oh, no thanks were needed; it
had been a pleasure to me. Good-bye!

I went on. At last I was freed from this work-ridden plague, and I could
go my way in peace. I turned down Pyle Street again, and stopped before a
grocer's shop. The whole window was filled with eatables, and I decided to
go in and get something to take with me.

"A piece of cheese and a French roll," I said, and threw my sixpence on to
the counter.

"Bread and cheese for the whole of it?" asked the woman ironically,
without looking up at me.

"For the whole sixpence? Yes," I answered, unruffled.

I took them up, bade the fat old woman good-morning, with the utmost
politeness, and sped, full tilt, up Castle Hill to the park.

I found a bench to myself, and began to bite greedily into my provender.
It did me good; it was a long time since I had had such a square meal,
and, by degrees, I felt the same sated quiet steal over me that one feels
after a good long cry. My courage rose mightily. I could no longer be