A FRIEND IN REQUEST It was the hour of the unyoking of men.

In the highways and byways of Clerkenwell there was a thronging of released toilers, of young and old, of male and female.

Forth they streamed from factories and workrooms, anxious to make the most of the few hours during which they might live for themselves.

Great numbers were still bent over their labour, and would be for hours to come, but the majority had leave to wend stablewards.

Along the main thoroughfares the wheel-track was clangorous; every omnibus that clattered by was heavily laden with passengers; tarpaulins gleamed over the knees of those who sat outside.
This way and that the lights were blurred into a misty radiance; overhead was mere blackness, whence descended the lashing rain.