To wait about in London was unbearable.
He took his hat, and, heedless of direction, walked towards the river.
It was a clear, bright day, with a bleak wind driving showers before it.

During one of such Shelton found himself in Little Blank Street.

"I wonder how that little Frenchman that I saw is getting on!" he thought.
On a fine day he would probably have passed by on the other side; he now entered and tapped upon the wicket.
No.

3 Little Blank Street had abated nothing of its stone-flagged dreariness; the same blowsy woman answered his inquiry.

Yes, Carolan was always in; you could never catch him out--seemed afraid to go into the street! To her call the little Frenchman made his appearance as punctually as if he had been the rabbit of a conjurer.