MR.

JOHN HARSTON KEEPS AN APPOINTMENT.
The approach to the offices of Girdlestone and Co.

was not a very dignified one, nor would the uninitiated who traversed it form any conception of the commercial prosperity of the firm in question.
Close to the corner of a broad and busy street, within a couple of hundred yards of Fenchurch Street Station, a narrow doorway opens into a long whitewashed passage.

On one side of this is a brass plate with the inscription "Girdlestone and Co., African Merchants," and above it a curious hieroglyphic supposed to represent a human hand in the act of pointing.

Following the guidance of this somewhat ghostly emblem, the wayfarer finds himself in a small square yard surrounded by doors, upon one of which the name of the firm reappears in large white letters, with the word "Push" printed beneath it.