s of London's streets.

I studied the newspaper advertisements under the heading 'Apartments.'
But some instinct told me these did not refer to London's cheapest
lodgings, and I felt a most urgent need for economy in the handling of
my small hoard. These few pounds must support me, I thought, until I
could cut out a niche for myself, here where there seemed hardly room
for the feet of the existing inhabitants. Already in quite a vague way
I had become conscious of the shadow of that dread presence whose
existence colours the outlook of millions in England. I wonder if the
consciousness had begun to affect my expression!

My choice of a locality was made eventually upon ridiculously
inadequate grounds. In a newspaper article dealing with charitable
work, I came upon some such words as these: 'Life is supported upon an
astoundingly small outlay of money among the poor householders, and
even poorer lodgers, in these streets opening out of the Seven Sisters
Road in the district lying between Stoke Newington and South
Tottenham. Here are families whose weekly rental is far less than many
a man spends on his solitary dinner in club or restaurant,' etc.

'This appears to be the sort of place for me,' I told myself.
Remembering certain green omnibuses that bore the name of Stoke
Newington, I descended from one of them an hour later outside a
hostelry called the Weavers' Arms. (Transatlantic slang has dubbed
these places 'gin-mills'; a telling name, I think.)

One of my difficulties was that I had no clear idea what amount would
be considered cheap in London, by way of rent for a single room. The
one thing clear in my mind was that I must, if possible, find the
cheapest. I had already gathered from chance talk, on board the
_Orimba_ and elsewhere, that the Australian 'board and lodging' system
was not much used in London, save in strata which would be above my
means. The cheaper way, I gathered, was to pay so much for a room and
'attendance,' which should include the preparation of one's own food.
The cheapest method of all, I had heard, and the method I meant to
adopt, was to rent a furnished room, but without 'attendance,' and to
provide meals for myself in the room or outside.

By this time the thing most desirable in my eyes was the possession of
a room of my own. I wanted badly to be able to shut myself in with my
luggage; to secure privacy, and be able to think, without the
distracting consciousness of my small capita