He felt that after his work the fresh air would do him good, and besides, as he was in plenty of time, he could indulge himself in that very cheap and harmless luxury, an inspection of the shop windows as he went along.

He therefore selected a longer and more crowded route than perhaps he need have done, and certainly, as far as the shops went, was rewarded for his pains.
However, Tom seemed to me to have as much interest in watching the people who passed to and fro as in the shops.

He amused himself by wondering where this one was going and what that one was doing.

With his usual tendency, he chose to imagine they were all bent on mischief or folly, and because they happened to be in a certain street, and because in that street he had frequently heard some of his fellow- students speak of a low theatre, he jumped to the conclusion that every one he saw was bound for this place.

Something impelled him to go himself and take an exterior survey of this mysterious and much-spoken- of building.