I gave up my ticket and, since I had come off a northern train, walked unhindered into the town.
It was market night, and the streets were crowded.

Blue-jackets from the Fleet, country-folk in to shop, and every kind of military detail thronged the pavements.

Fish-hawkers were crying their wares, and there was a tatterdemalion piper making the night hideous at a corner.

I took a tortuous route and finally fixed on a modest-looking public-house in a back street.

When I inquired for a room I could find no one in authority, but a slatternly girl informed me that there was one vacant bed, and that I could have ham and eggs in the bar.