Master Humphreys Clock | Page 9

side, the glare of light in which
they were displayed, and the concourse of people who hurried to and
fro, indifferent, apparently, to all the wonders that surrounded them.
But in all the long streets and broad squares, there were none but
strangers; it was quite a relief to turn down a by-way and hear his own
footsteps on the pavement. He went home to his inn, thought that
London was a dreary, desolate place, and felt disposed to doubt the
existence of one true-hearted man in the whole worshipful Company of
Patten-makers. Finally, he went to bed, and dreamed that he and the
Lord Mayor elect were boys again.
He went next day to the dinner; and when in a burst of light and music,
and in the midst of splendid decorations and surrounded by brilliant
company, his former friend appeared at the head of the Hall, and was
hailed with shouts and cheering, he cheered and shouted with the best,
and for the moment could have cried. The next moment he cursed his
weakness in behalf of a man so changed and selfish, and quite hated a
jolly-looking old gentleman opposite for declaring himself in the pride
of his heart a Patten-maker.
As the banquet proceeded, he took more and more to heart the rich
citizen's unkindness; and that, not from any envy, but because he felt
that a man of his state and fortune could all the better afford to
recognise an old friend, even if he were poor and obscure. The more he
thought of this, the more lonely and sad he felt. When the company

dispersed and adjourned to the ball-room, he paced the hall and
passages alone, ruminating in a very melancholy condition upon the
disappointment he had experienced.
It chanced, while he was lounging about in this moody state, that he
stumbled upon a flight of stairs, dark, steep, and narrow, which he
ascended without any thought about the matter, and so came into a little
music-gallery, empty and deserted. From this elevated post, which
commanded the whole hall, he amused himself in looking down upon
the attendants who were clearing away the fragments of the feast very
lazily, and drinking out of all the bottles and glasses with most
commendable perseverance.
His attention gradually relaxed, and he fell fast asleep.
When he awoke, he thought there must be something the matter with
his eyes; but, rubbing them a little, he soon found that the moonlight
was really streaming through the east window, that the lamps were all
extinguished, and that he was alone. He listened, but no distant murmur
in the echoing passages, not even the shutting of a door, broke the deep
silence; he groped his way down the stairs, and found that the door at
the bottom was locked on the other side. He began now to comprehend
that he must have slept a long time, that he had been overlooked, and
was shut up there for the night.
His first sensation, perhaps, was not altogether a comfortable one, for it
was a dark, chilly, earthy-smelling place, and something too large, for a
man so situated, to feel at home in. However, when the momentary
consternation of his surprise was over, he made light of the accident,
and resolved to feel his way up the stairs again, and make himself as
comfortable as he could in the gallery until morning. As he turned to
execute this purpose, he heard the clocks strike three.
Any such invasion of a dead stillness as the striking of distant clocks,
causes it to appear the more intense and insupportable when the sound
has ceased. He listened with strained attention in the hope that some
clock, lagging behind its fellows, had yet to strike, - looking all the
time into the profound darkness before him, until it seemed to weave
itself into a black tissue, patterned with a hundred reflections of his
own eyes. But the bells had all pealed out their warning for that once,
and the gust of wind that moaned through the place seemed cold and
heavy with their iron breath.

The time and circumstances were favourable to reflection. He tried to
keep his thoughts to the current, unpleasant though it was, in which
they had moved all day, and to think with what a romantic feeling he
had looked forward to shaking his old friend by the hand before he died,
and what a wide and cruel difference there was between the meeting
they had had, and that which he had so often and so long anticipated.
Still, he was disordered by waking to such sudden loneliness, and could
not prevent his mind from running upon odd tales of people of
undoubted courage, who, being shut up by night in vaults or churches,