lit passage, taking good care that we have no contact
with the walls; the air we breathe is thick with unpleasant odours,
and we realise at once, and to our complete satisfaction, the smell and
flavour of a common lodging-house. We know instinctively that we have
made its acquaintance before, it seems familiar to us, but we are
puzzled about it until we remember we have had a foretaste of it given
to us by some lodging-house habitues that we met. The aroma of a common
lodging-house cannot be concealed, it is not to be mistaken. The hour
is six o'clock p.m., the days are short, for it is November. The lodgers
are arriving, so we stand and watch them as they pass the little office
and pay their sixpences. Down goes the money, promptly a numbered ticket
takes its place; few words are exchanged, and away go the ticket-holders
to the general kitchen.

Presently the deputy comes to interview us, and he does not put us at
our ease; he is a forbidding fellow, one that evidently will stand no
nonsense. Observe, if you please, that he has lost his right hand, and
that a formidable iron hook replaces it. Many a time has that hook been
serviceable; if it could speak, many tales would it tell of victories
won, of rows quelled, and of blood spilled.

We have seen the fellow previously, and more than once, at the local
police-court. Sometimes he came as prosecutor, sometimes as prisoner,
and at other times as witness. When the police had been required to
supplement the power of his iron hand in quelling the many free fights,
he appeared sometimes in the dual capacity of prisoner and prosecutor.

We know that he retains his position because of his strength and the
unscrupulous way in which he uses it. He knows us too, but he is not
well pleased to see us! Nevertheless, he accedes to our request for
"just a look round." So through a large passage we pass, and he ushers
us into the lodging-house kitchen. As the door opens a babel of many
voices greets us, a rush of warm air comes at us, and the evidence of
our noses proclaims that bloaters and bacon, liver and onions, sausages
and fresh fish are being cooked. We look and see, we see and taste!
Strange eyes are turned upon us just for a moment, but we are not
"'tecs," so the eyes are turned back to the different frying-pans or
roasting-forks, as the case may be. See how they crowd round the huge
and open fire, for there is no cooking range. See how they elbow each
other as they want spa