re?" he
shot at him in his deepest bass. "I see you are; your look answers for
you." And he strode on again. He turned to add over his shoulder: "I
cannot in the intewests of my pwofession emulate you; it is incumbent on
me to know first hand all that is possible, but I consider it an
excellent thing for the layman. Keep it up. Don't let Killigrew, who is
a commonplace sinner, laugh you out of it."

Ishmael forced himself to reply that he did not intend to forego his own
ideas on the subject for Killigrew or anyone else; and, indeed, he was
not so outraged by anything Carminow had said as by Killigrew's
whispered communication that for his part he believed Carminow was
boasting.... "Don't believe he knows the way," added Killigrew, "or only
theoretically. He's like a lot of doctors--all theories and no
practice." He was so pleased with this joke he had to repeat it aloud to
Carminow, who bore it quite unruffled.

They had now reached the house, one of the many little lodging-houses
that stood where the Hotel Cecil is to-day, and Carminow let himself in
with a large key and, turning up the gas, revealed the usual
lodging-house hall that is and was and always shall be eternally the
same as long as lodgings and landladies exist. It had a yellowish paper
blotted with large blurred flowers of a reddish hue, a steel engraving
of the "Derby Day" hung by the hat-stand, and the woodwork was of bright
yellow graining.

Carminow's rooms were on the second floor; after the first landing had
been passed the stairs suddenly altered in character, and from being
carpeted and fairly wide took onto themselves linoleum and a steep
straightness that said plainly: "Up to here two guineas a week; above
here only thirty shillings, with half-a-crown for extras." Higher still
bare boards advertised the fact that only "bed-sitters" or even plain
bedrooms were to be found.

Carminow's rooms ran the depth of the house, the front one, his
sitting-room, being separated from the bedroom by folding doors of the
same bright yellow as the doors in the hall. Into the sitting-room he
ushered his guests, and they knocked helplessly up against sharp angles
while Carminow pawed and patted round the room for matches, obstinately
refusing the offers of their boxes because he said he was trying to
train his landlady to keep his in the same place. Killigrew,
uninterested in the education of landladies, finally insisted on
striking one of his own, and uttere