write some
day and tell him how he was getting on in London. This letter he did
not intend to post until the last thing before leaving Deal. Lucy had
already gone to her new home, and Frank felt confident that she would be
happy there. His friend, the doctor, who had tried strongly, but without
avail, to dissuade Frank from going up to London to seek his fortune
there, had promised that if the lad referred any inquiries to him he
would answer for his character.

He went down to the beach the last evening and said goodbye to his
friends among the fishermen, and he walked over in the afternoon and
took his last meal with Farmer Gregson.

"Look ye here, my lad," the farmer said as they parted. "I tell ye, from
what I've heerd, this London be a hard nut to crack. There be plenty of
kernel, no doubt, when you can get at it, but it be hard work to open
the shell. Now, if so be as at any time you run short of money, just
drop me a line, and there's ten pound at your service whenever you like.
Don't you think it's an obligation. Quite the other way. It would be a
real pleasure to me to lend you a helping hand."

Two days after the sale Frank started for London. On getting out of the
train he felt strange and lonely amid the bustle and confusion which was
going on on the platform. The doctor had advised him to ask one of
the porters, or a policeman, if he could recommend him to a quiet and
respectable lodging, as expenses at an hotel would soon make a deep
hole in his money. He, therefore, as soon as the crowd cleared away,
addressed himself to one of the porters.

"What sort of lodgings do you want, sir?" the man said, looking at him
rather suspiciously, with, as Frank saw, a strong idea in his mind that
he was a runaway schoolboy.

"I only want one room," he said, "and I don't care how small it is, so
that it is clean and quiet. I shall be out all day, and should not give
much trouble."

The porter went away and spoke to some of his mates, and presently
returned with one of them.

"You're wanting a room I hear, sir," the man said. "I have a little
house down the Old Kent Road, and my missus lets a room or two. It's
quiet and clean, I'll warrant you. We have one room vacant at present."

"I'm sure that would suit me very well," Frank said. "How much do you
charge a week?"

"Three and sixpence, sir, if you don't want any cooking done."

Frank took the address, and leaving his portmanteau in charge of the
porter, who