Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action , that the singer fled in terror , leaving the keyhole to the fog , and even more congenial frost . At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived . With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool , and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the tank , who instantly snuffed his candle out , and put on his hat . `` You 'll want all day to-morrow , I suppose ? '' said Scrooge . `` If quite convenient , sir . '' `` It 's not convenient , '' said Scrooge , `` and it 's not fair . If I was to stop half-a-crown for it , you 'd think yourself ill used , I 'll be bound ? '' The clerk smiled faintly . `` And yet , '' said Scrooge , `` you do n't think me ill used when I pay a day 's wages for no work . '' The clerk observed that it was only once a year . `` A poor excuse for picking a man 's pocket every twenty-fifth of December ! '' said Scrooge , buttoning his great-coat to the chin . `` But I suppose you must have the whole day . Be here all the earlier next morning . '' The clerk promised that he would ; and Scrooge walked out with a growl . The office was closed in a twinkling , and the clerk , with the long ends of his white comforter dangling below his waist -LRB- for he boasted no great-coat -RRB- , went down a slide on Cornhill , at the end of a lane of boys , twenty times , in honour of its being Christmas-eve , and then ran home to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt , to play at blindman 's buff . Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern ; and having read all the newspapers , and beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker 's book , went home to bed . He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner . They were a gloomy suite of rooms , in a lowering pile of building up a yard , where it had so little business to be , that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house , playing at hide-and-seek with other houses , and have forgotten the way out again .
It was old enough now , and dreary enough ; for nobody lived in it but XXXXX , the other rooms being all let out as offices .
Cornhill Scrooge Town comforter counting-house day evening great-coat of year