THE WANING OF THE YEAR 171

spendthrifts and gamesters, dissolute fellows, of whom the
least said soonest mended ; and with them he was brawling
early and late, very often all night long. And though
money came in fast, he wasted it faster, so that matters
went from bad to worse. Duns came spying about his door,
and bailiffs hunted after him around the town with unpaid
tradesmen’s bills. Yet still he laughed and clapped his
hand upon his poniard in the old bold way.

September faded away in wistful haze along the Hamp-
stead hills. The Admiral’s men came riding back with
keen October ringing at their heels, and all the stalls were
full of red-cheeked apples striped with emerald and gold.
November followed, with its nipping frost, and all St.
George’s merry green fields turned brown and purple-gray.
The old year was waning fast.

The Queen’s Day was but a poor holiday, in spite of the
shut-up shops; for it was grown so cold with sleet and
rain that it was hard to get about, the gutters and streets
being very foul, and the by-lanes impassable. And now
the children of Paul’s gave no more plays in the yard of
the Mitre Inn, but sang in their own warm hall; for
winter was at hand.

There came black nights when an ugly wind moaned in
the shivering chimneys and howled across the peaked
roofs, nights when there was no playing at the Rose, but
it was hearty to be by the fire. Then sometimes Carew
sat at home all evening long, with Cicely upon his knee,
and told strange tales of lands across the sea, where he
had traveled when he was young, and where none spoke