All throughout the theatre, the gas lamps are extinguished, leaving the stage lit and the musicians preparing to practice their craft, and Watson leans back in his seat once more to listen.
* * *
"--quite marvelous, I thought," Watson is saying several hours later. It's late, but not so late that a stroll to avoid the crush of concert attendees -- and thus the crush of people hiring every available hansom cab -- is inadvisable. Watson was game for the walk, certainly, even if he is limping a touch more than is his habit; sitting too still for too long never does kind things to his old war wound, and neither do the pressure changes from oncoming rain (he occasionally asks himself, not without a certain self-aware humor, just why he resides in bloody London).
But it is still a fine night now; most shops are closed, but taverns and pubs are going strong, and Holmes and Watson are far from the only people on the pavement. Horse-drawn carts and cabs rattle past constantly, and Watson steps around a knot of men gathered outside a pub, who seem to be laughing at some jest.
no subject
* * *
"--quite marvelous, I thought," Watson is saying several hours later. It's late, but not so late that a stroll to avoid the crush of concert attendees -- and thus the crush of people hiring every available hansom cab -- is inadvisable. Watson was game for the walk, certainly, even if he is limping a touch more than is his habit; sitting too still for too long never does kind things to his old war wound, and neither do the pressure changes from oncoming rain (he occasionally asks himself, not without a certain self-aware humor, just why he resides in bloody London).
But it is still a fine night now; most shops are closed, but taverns and pubs are going strong, and Holmes and Watson are far from the only people on the pavement. Horse-drawn carts and cabs rattle past constantly, and Watson steps around a knot of men gathered outside a pub, who seem to be laughing at some jest.
"Very," he reaches for the right word, "precise."