things I could
have added to my stock with advantage.

On the left I came to the railway station; the line passed over the
road, and beyond it the High Street sloped steeply upwards. At the top
of the hill I saw some public baths. Noticing on the opposite side of
the way a large shop with cheap clothing in the window, I entered and
made my first purchase, which consisted of a pair of stockings and some
shoes--of brown canvas, because these were the cheapest. Carrying my
parcel, I entered the baths, and came forth feeling much cleaner and
more presentable.

I next treated myself to an egg for tea, with ample bread and butter and
a cup of cocoa, and then I thought it high time to seek a place in which
to sleep. In speaking of an hotel, I had in my mind a Temperance Hotel,
although I had not entered into details before Dick; but, as I walked
away from the tea-shop, exploring small streets, I passed a tailor's,
where a man was seated cross-legged on a board, busily stitching. In the
window was a card bearing the inscription, 'Bedroom to let to a single
man,' and then a happy idea occurred to me.

My clothes were sadly in need of repair, my jacket being torn and
stained, and my knickerbockers requiring a patch on the right knee. Now,
I thought, if I engage a bed at the tailor's, he might consent to repair
my suit while I occupy it. So I opened the door and entered the warm,
moist air of the shop, with an inquiry about the bedroom, whereupon the
tailor gazed at me doubtfully a moment and shouted for 'Emma!'

She was a pleasant-looking woman with a baby in her arms, and a second
child clinging to her skirts, and she also seemed to regard me
suspiciously.

'I want a room for one night,' I explained, and then she glanced at her
husband.

'Got any money to pay for it?' he demanded.

'Rather,' I said. 'I can pay you first if you like.'

'Well, that is what I _should_ like,' he answered. 'Show the room,
Emma.'

She took me upstairs to a clean but poorly-furnished room, for which she
demanded a shilling, but after some conversation she agreed to supply me
with a good breakfast the next morning for one and ninepence. With this
offer I closed, and then, having given her one of my sovereigns, she
took me downstairs again to ask her husband for the change. When I had
counted this, I broached the subject of my clothes, suggesting that I
would go to bed at once if he would put them in good order by to-morrow
morning. We made a