"
"The crowd? What crowd?"
When he had heard the explanation his lordship readily assented.
Certainly they would stroll as far as St. Paul's and back again, by
that time Greenacre might have come. It seemed probable that when
they had gone a little distance Lord Polperro would feel shaky and
consent to take a cab. Drink, however, had invigorated the man; he
reeled a little and talked very huskily, but declared that the walk
was enjoyable.
"Let's go into the crowd, Gammon. I like a crowd. What are those
bells ringing for? Yes, yes, of course, I remember--New Year's Eve.
I had no idea that people came here to see the New Year in. I shall
come again. I shall come every year; it's most enjoyable."
They entered the Churchyard and were soon amid a noisy, hustling
throng, an assembly composed of clerks and countermen, roughs and
pickpockets, with a sprinkling of well-to-do rowdies, and numerous
girls or women, whose shrieks, screams, and yelps sounded above the
deeper notes of masculine uproar. Gammon, holding tight to his
companion's arm, endeavoured to pilot him in a direction where the
crowd was thinnest, still moving westward; but Lord Polperro caught
the contagion of the tumult and began pressing vehemently into the
surging mass.
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