which had been pointed out to him as the
object of his destination. It was a small low building, one story above
the ground, with even a more desolate and unpromising exterior than any
he had yet passed. An old yellow curtain was closely drawn across the
window up-stairs, and the parlour shutters were closed, but not fastened.
The house was detached from any other, and, as it stood at an angle of a
narrow lane, there was no other habitation in sight.

When we say that the surgeon hesitated, and walked a few paces beyond the
house, before he could prevail upon himself to lift the knocker, we say
nothing that need raise a smile upon the face of the boldest reader. The
police of London were a very different body in that day; the isolated
position of the suburbs, when the rage for building and the progress of
improvement had not yet begun to connect them with the main body of the
city and its environs, rendered many of them (and this in particular) a
place of resort for the worst and most depraved characters. Even the
streets in the gayest parts of London were imperfectly lighted, at that
time; and such places as these, were left entirely to the mercy of the
moon and stars. The chances of detecting desperate characters, or of
tracing them to their haunts, were thus rendered very few, and their
offences naturally increased in boldness, as the consciousness of
comparative security became the more impressed upon them by daily
experience. Added to these considerations, it must be remembered that
the young man had spent some time in the public hospitals of the
metropolis; and, although neither Burke nor Bishop had then gained a
horrible notoriety, his own observation might have suggested to him how
easily the atrocities to which the former has since given his name, might
be committed. Be this as it may, whatever reflection made him hesitate,
he _did_ hesitate: but, being a young man of strong mind and great
personal courage, it was only for an instant;--he stepped briskly back
and knocked gently at the door.

A low whispering was audible, immediately afterwards, as if some person
at the end of the passage were conversing stealthily with another on the
landing above. It was succeeded by the noise of a pair of heavy boots
upon the bare floor. The door-chain was softly unfastened; the door
opened; and a tall, ill-favoured man, with black hair, and a face, as the
surgeon often declared afterwards, as pale and haggard, as th