Perhaps it was the consciousness of having beaten his loneliness and misery by mere physical endurance.

Perhaps it was only the natural spring of twenty years.

At all events, he felt dimly, that miserable and unhopeful as the future looked, he was not conquered yet; that he was going to fight on, come what might.
He turned to the river front, and after bargaining with a passing cart for a pint of what the poorer people of the city buy as milk, he turned north, and quickening his pace, walked till he had left the city proper and had reached the new avenue or "drive," which, by the liberality of Mr.Tweed with other people's money, was then just approaching completion.

After walking the length of it, he turned back to his boarding-place, and after a plunge, felt as if he could face and fight the future to any extent.
As a result of this he was for the first time late at breakfast The presider over the box-office had ascertained that Peter had spent the night out, and had concluded he would have a gird or two at him.

He failed, however, to carry out his intention.