The hours crept on very slowly that day. To me they seemed
interminable. A thousand times I glanced at the little clock that
ticked so sharply on the mantelshelf, but its small hand sullenly, as it
seemed, refused to move any faster.
Feeling that the suspense was becoming unbearable, I tried a short walk
in the Strand. Scarcely had I gone a hundred yards along that busy
thoroughfare before I espied Demetrius. He was strolling along in the
same aimless fashion as myself. At first my impulse was to go and
salute him, for his cheerful companionship might do much to arrest my
melancholy feelings, and make the time pass rapidly. My next thought,
however, was to avoid him, for he would be certain to notice my
preoccupation, and might put me to trouble in framing evasive answers.
While I was thus debating with myself, he settled the point by catching
sight of me and coming cheerfully up.
"Hey-day! and why so cheerless?" he cried, as he clasped me warmly by
the hand. It was a favourite expression of his, and one which he very
frequently used, in spite of its antiquated ring.
"Did I look cheerful?" I responded, purposely answering his inquiry
oppositely. "The fact is I've come out to kill an hour or two, and when
one is seeking amusement it's not difficult to find it in the streets of
this great city of ours, is it?"
He glanced at me with a curious expression in his eyes, and I wondered
whether he saw through the forced flippancy of my reply.
"That's it, is it?" he remarked. "Well, come along, and we'll do our
best to destroy some of your dread enemy, Time, for a while," and
forthwith he hurried me along several miles of streets, bustling among
the people right and left, and keeping up a constant chatter which did
much to relieve me, as all I need do was to return a fragmentary answer
when occasion offered.
Presently, when we had reached a quiet corner, where conversation was
much easier, I said,--
"By the way, now I think of it; where are you `hanging out'?"