No school of picturesque disciples surrounded him by day.

If he peeped above his blinds he could see the radiant procession of omnibuses on their halting way towards Westminster.

The melodies of wandering organs sang in his ascetic ears, not once, nor twice, but many times a week.

The milk-boy came, it must be presumed, to pay his visit in the morning; and the sparrows made the air alive, poising above the chimneys, instead of the wild eagles, whose home is near the sun.

Valentine was a modern young man of twenty-four, dealt at the Army and Navy Stores, was extremely well off, and knew everybody.