oached the door with much repugnance, and
knocked. No one answered, yet I heard voices inside.

The husband did not speak as I stepped in, did not acknowledge my nod
even, merely glanced at me carelessly, as if I were no concern of his.
Besides, he was sitting playing cards with a person I had seen down on
the quays, with the by-name of "Pane o' glass." An infant lay and
prattled to itself over in the bed, and an old man, the landlady's
father, sat doubled together on a settle-bed, and bent his head down
Over his hands as if his chest or stomach pained him. His hair was
almost white, and he looked in his crouching position like a
poke-necked reptile that sat cocking its ears at something.

"I come, worse luck, to beg for house-room down here tonight," I said
to the man.

"Did my wife say so?" he inquired.

"Yes; a new lodger came to my room."

To this the man made no reply, but proceeded to finger the cards. There
this man sat, day after day, and played cards with anybody who happened
to come in--played for nothing, only just to kill time, and have
something in hand. He never did anything else, only moved just as much
as his lazy limbs felt inclined, whilst his wife bustled up and down
stairs, was occupied on all sides, and took care to draw customers to
the house. She had put herself in connection with quay-porters and
dock-men, to whom she paid a certain sum for every new lodger they
brought her, and she often gave them, in addition, a shelter for the
night. This time it was "Pane o' glass" that had just brought along the
new lodger.

A couple of the children came in--two little girls, with thin,
freckled, gutter-snipe faces; their clothes were positively wretched. A
while after the landlady herself entered. I asked her where she
intended to put me up for the night, and she replied that I could lie
in here together with the others, or out in the ante-room on the sofa,
as I thought fit. Whilst she answered me she fussed about the room and
busied herself with different things that she set in order, and she
never once looked at me.

My spirits were crushed by her reply.

I stood down near the door, and made myself small, tried to make it
appear as if I were quite content all the same to change my room for
another for one night's sake. I put on a friendly face on purpose not
to irritate her and perhaps be hustled right out of the house.

"Ah, yes," I said, "there is sure to be some way I . . .," and then
held