He even went behind and upon the stage, as spectators were
still permitted to do, although there was less of this confusion
than a few years before; and he was eagerly welcomed wherever he
appeared.
From the play they repaired to more gay houses, where Tom speedily
lost his ten guineas at basset, but was too excited to care, and
paid over his stakes with a lordly indifference that did credit to
his powers of observation and imitation.
It was long past midnight ere they bent their steps homewards, and
then, as it was far too late to seek the shelter of Master Cale's
abode, Tom betook himself once more to Lord Claud's lodgings, and
was speedily sound asleep in the most soft and sumptuous bed it had
ever been his lot to lie upon.
CHAPTER VII. MASTER GALE'S DAUGHTER.
It was Sunday morning, and Tom was making his way, towards the hour
of noon, to the house of the perruquier, which he had quitted some
four days past, with no intention of so long an absence.
The streets were unwontedly quiet, and the cries of the apprentices
at the doors of the shops were pleasantly missed. The shops were
most of them shuttered up, and the apprentices, clad in their best,
were all away to some sport of their own selection in byways and
alleys, or lingering about the parks with a knot of footmen and
lackeys, watching the fine folk walk in and out.
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