CHAPTER IV--A MAN AND THE ABYSS.
"I say, can you let a lodging ?" These words I discharged carelessly over my shoulder at a stout and elderly woman, of whose fare I was partaking in a greasy coffee-house down near the Pool and not very far from Limehouse.
"Oh yus," she answered shortly, my appearance possibly not approximating the standard of affluence required by her house.
I said no more, consuming my rasher of bacon and pint of sickly tea in silence.

Nor did she take further interest in me till I came to pay my reckoning (fourpence), when I pulled all of ten shillings out of my pocket.

The expected result was produced.
"Yus, sir," she at once volunteered; "I 'ave nice lodgin's you'd likely tyke a fancy to.

Back from a voyage, sir ?" "How much for a room ?" I inquired, ignoring her curiosity.
She looked me up and down with frank surprise.

"I don't let rooms, not to my reg'lar lodgers, much less casuals." "Then I'll have to look along a bit," I said, with marked disappointment.
But the sight of my ten shillings had made her keen.