Now this was not such a simple matter as you may suppose; it was necessary to obtain the signature of some respectable householder, and Reardon was acquainted with no such person.

His landlady was a decent woman enough, and a payer of rates and taxes, but it would look odd, to say the least of it, to present oneself in Great Russell Street armed with this person's recommendation.

There was nothing for it but to take a bold step, to force himself upon the attention of a stranger--the thing from which his pride had always shrunk.

He wrote to a well-known novelist--a man with whose works he had some sympathy.

'I am trying to prepare myself for a literary career.
I wish to study in the Reading-room of the British Museum, but have no acquaintance to whom I can refer in the ordinary way.