The night was fine and clear as I walked back to the flat I had hired near Portland Place.
The crowd surged past me on the pavements, busy and chattering, and I envied the people for having something to do.

These shop-girls and clerks and dandies and policemen had some interest in life that kept them going.

I gave half-a-crown to a beggar because I saw him yawn; he was a fellow-sufferer.

At Oxford Circus I looked up into the spring sky and I made a vow.

I would give the Old Country another day to fit me into something; if nothing happened, I would take the next boat for the Cape.
My flat was the first floor in a new block behind Langham Place.