Near the statue of Peel stood a hansom, the forlorn horse crooking his knees and hanging his hopeless head.

The Town Hall colonnade sheltered a crowd of people, who were waiting for the rain to stop, that they might spend their Sunday evening, as usual, in rambling about the streets.

Within the building, which showed light through all its long windows, a religious meeting was in progress, and hundreds of voices peeled forth a rousing hymn, fortified with deeper organ-note.
Hilliard noticed that as rain-drops fell on the heated globes of the street-lamps they were thrown off again in little jets and puffs of steam.

This phenomenon amused him for several minutes.

He wondered that he had never observed it before.
Easter Sunday.