The house in which he lived was of two storeys; a brass plate on the door showed the inscription, 'Hodgson, Dial Painter.' The window on the ground-floor was arched, as in the other dwellings at this end of the street, and within stood an artistic arrangement of wax fruit under a glass shade, supported by a heavy volume of Biblical appearance.

The upper storey was graced with a small iron balcony, on which straggled a few flower-pots.

However, the exterior of this abode was, by comparison, promising; the curtains and blinds were clean, the step was washed and whitened, the brass plate shone, the panes of glass had at all events acquaintance with a duster.
A few yards in the direction away from the Square, and Tysoe Street falls under the dominion of dry-rot.
It was not until he set forth to go to work next morning that Sidney called to mind his conversation with Jane.

That the child should have missed by five minutes a meeting with someone who perchance had the will and the power to befriend her, seemed to him, in his present mood, merely an illustration of a vice inherent in the nature of things.

He determined to look in at the public-house of which she had spoken, and hear for himself what manner of man had made inquiries for people named Snowdon.