door on the left.'

Mr. Gabriel Parsons thus instructed, ascended the uncarpeted and
ill-lighted staircase, and after giving several subdued taps at the
before-mentioned 'door on the left,' which were rendered inaudible by the
hum of voices within the room, and the hissing noise attendant on some
frying operations which were carrying on below stairs, turned the handle,
and entered the apartment. Being informed that the unfortunate object of
his visit had just gone up-stairs to write a letter, he had leisure to
sit down and observe the scene before him.

The room--which was a small, confined den--was partitioned off into
boxes, like the common-room of some inferior eating-house. The dirty
floor had evidently been as long a stranger to the scrubbing-brush as to
carpet or floor-cloth: and the ceiling was completely blackened by the
flare of the oil-lamp by which the room was lighted at night. The gray
ashes on the edges of the tables, and the cigar ends which were
plentifully scattered about the dusty grate, fully accounted for the
intolerable smell of tobacco which pervaded the place; and the empty
glasses and half-saturated slices of lemon on the tables, together with
the porter pots beneath them, bore testimony to the frequent libations in
which the individuals who honoured Mr. Solomon Jacobs by a temporary
residence in his house indulged. Over the mantel-shelf was a paltry
looking-glass, extending about half the width of the chimney-piece; but
by way of counterpoise, the ashes were confined by a rusty fender about
twice as long as the hearth.

From this cheerful room itself, the attention of Mr. Gabriel Parsons was
naturally directed to its inmates. In one of the boxes two men were
playing at cribbage with a very dirty pack of cards, some with blue, some
with green, and some with red backs--selections from decayed packs. The
cribbage board had been long ago formed on the table by some ingenious
visitor with the assistance of a pocket-knife and a two-pronged fork,
with which the necessary number of holes had been made in the table at
proper distances for the reception of the wooden pegs. In another box a
stout, hearty-looking man, of about forty, was eating some dinner which
his wife--an equally comfortable-looking personage--had brought him in a
basket: and in a third, a genteel-looking young man was talking
earnestly, and in a low tone, to a young female, whose face was concealed
by a thick veil, but whom Mr.