noon
It was a kind of club upon a small scale ; and there was no degradation in breaking bread with the elegant Horatio . To Omega-street Valentine returned this afternoon , there to eat a frugal meal and spend a meditative evening , uncheered by one glimmer of that radiance which more fortunate men know as the light of home . _ October 15th _ . I left Omega-street for the City before noon , after a hasty breakfast with my friend Horatio , who was somewhat under the dominion of his black dog this morning , and far from pleasant company . I was not to present myself to the worthy John Grewter , wholesale stationer , before the afternoon ; but I had no particular reason for staying at home , and I had a fancy for strolling about the old City quarter in which Matthew Haygarth 's youth had been spent . I went to look at John-street , Clerkenwell , and dawdled about the immediate neighbourhood of Smithfield , thinking of the old fair-time , and of all the rioters and merry-makers , who now were so much or so little dust and ashes in City churchyards , until the great bell of St. Paul 's boomed three , and I felt that it might be a leisure time with Mr. Grewter . I found the stationer 's shop as darksome and dreary as City shops usually are , but redolent of that subtle odour of wealth which has a mystical charm for the nostrils of the penniless one .