As Nora put her head out again hers was the tone of anxiety.
"Is this Newington Butts?"
"It used to be when I was here last, but perhaps it's been and gone and turned itself into something else since; you might ask a policeman if you think it has been up to any game of the kind. There's one standing over there; I'll call him if you like; he might know."
"Thank you; I--I don't think I'll trouble you. The fact is I want lodgings; do you know of any round here?"
"Lodgings? I shouldn't have thought there was any round here to suit you."
"Oh, I'm so sorry; why not?"
"There's about two hundred thousand, I dare say, so perhaps one of them might suit. Anyhow, I'll show you a few samples. Only, mind you, I'm not engaged by the hour, nor yet by the week."
When next the cab stopped the main thoroughfare had been left behind, and they were in a street of private houses.
"Here you are; here's a street pretty nearly full of them; all you've got to do is pick and choose."
Nora, getting out, perceived that in many of the windows there were cards announcing that there were rooms to let. She began her search. At some houses they asked too much; at others they did not take ladies; and there were rooms in which she would not have lived rent-free; perhaps she tried a dozen without success. The cabman, who had followed her from house to house, did not appear to be so disheartened by this result as she did.