Page:Adams - A Child of the Age.djvu/77

65 in considering them all. So I went on, till I came to a corner where the main street ended. There I somewhat mechanically crossed. As I reached the pavement on the other side, I heard a man call out twice: 'Kil-burn! Kil-burn!' and looked at him standing, keeping on by a strap with one hand and holding out the other, on an omnibus perch.

'Kilburn,' I thought, 'is the farthest place he goes to. Probably, then, it's a suburb. I may as well go there as anywhere, for what I intend to do. At any rate, I'll see.'

And with that went straight to the omnibus step and clambered up by the ladder on to the top, where I found myself exchanging looks with a man sitting on another omnibus that just then passed by. I laid the bag down and put on my coat, when the conductor got up, crossed to my side, and began removing the tarpaulin from the seat. I thanked him and sat down with the bag beside me, and took to half-absently watching the people passing in and out of the light from the shop windows as we drove on. We drove on for some time.

At last we turned into a long straight rather dark street—Edgware Road, I heard the driver say. As we were some way up it, I noticed what seemed torches or something of the sort flaring by the right side, at the top, just above where it bifurcated. I determined to get down there.

We stopped on the left side just below them. I let myself down with my bag in my teeth, and paid the conductor my fare, 2d. or 3d., I forget which. Then I turned from him, crossed the street, and sauntered on looking at the stalls. There were not many people along the pavement: the hawkers cried their cries rather plaintively: one old man, sitting in front of an oven with a small steam-jet, cried out every now and then sharply: '’Ot! ’Ot!'

It was still raining and it seemed colder. I sauntered on. A tall girl, with a singularly well-made body and well-poised head, moved with a long swinging step in front of me. She stopped in a moment, to buy some nuts, and I saw her face. It was pleasant to look at