‘Now you’ll have my coat, ’tis a new silk one—there it goes,’ he cried, flinging off the fine garment in question, as he leant forward with sparkling eyes to cut the cards.
‘Lost again! My diamond shoe-buckles now—there—you have them also? Gad! I’ll be stripped before I’m done—well, the shoes themselves. Lost them too!’ and with a shout of laughter Phil flung down his cards and rose from the table.
‘I must get home without my shoes and without my coat!—I thank you; no, sir, I’d like the sensation. We’ll taste the sweets of poverty on a chill winter’s night for once—to walk home with empty pockets, without a coat or shoes. By George, that’s something new!’
‘Phil, put on your coat; for all the world you act like a child,’ laughed his father. And Phil certainly looked babyish enough as he stood there shoeless, in his ruffled cambric shirt, laughing and careless.
But Phil would not be persuaded. The coat was his no longer, said he, nor the shoes.
‘Come, sir, if you are going my way,’ he said, bowing to his father, and they stepped out into the passage together.
‘We may go so far in company,’ said Meadowes, as they passed out.
The other men who had been in the room waited to exchange comments on the father and son, only Simon Prior, after a few minutes, found that it was growing late, and he must make his way homewards.
He went through the passage and looked out into the inky darkness of the moonless January night; the sky was of a bluish blackness, only a shade less dense than the earth it canopied, and unpierced by any star. Prior listened intently for a moment, but no footsteps echoed down the street. Great London was asleep in these early morning hours, for it was nearing three o’clock. Once and again as he walked along Prior stopped to listen, then he bent down and slipped off his shoes, crammed one into each of the huge pockets of his long-skirted coat, and with noiseless flying footsteps sped down the street: the darkness received him.
Meantime Phil and his father were walking together in the direction of St. James’ Square; Phil, gay as was his wont when excited, was pressing Meadowes to come home with him.