The Captain continued that deleterious amusement of smoking, long after
the inn and the street were gone to bed. He watched the lights vanish
from George's sitting-room windows, and shine out in the bedroom close
at hand. It was almost morning when he returned to his own quarters.
He could hear the cheering from the ships in the river, where the
transports were already taking in their cargoes preparatory to dropping
down the Thames.