“Yes, sir,” said Mr. Bell, “but I think we have given him a fright.”
“O, we shall hear no more of Mr. Morris Finsbury,” returned the other; “it was a first attempt, and the house have dealt with us so long that I was anxious to deal gently. But I suppose, Mr. Bell, there can be no mistake about yesterday? It was old Mr. Finsbury himself?”
“There could be no possible doubt of that,” said Mr. Bell with a chuckle. “He explained to me the principles of banking.”
“Well, well,” said Mr. Judkin. “The next time he calls ask him to step into my room. It is only proper he should be warned.”
CHAPTER VII
IN WHICH WILLIAM DENT PITMAN TAKES LEGAL ADVICE
Norfolk Street, King’s Road—jocularly known among Mr. Pitman’s lodgers as “Norfolk Island”—is neither a long, a handsome, nor a pleasing thoroughfare. Dirty, undersized maids-of-all-work issue from it in pursuit of beer, or linger on its sidewalk listening to the voice of love. The cat’s-meat man passes twice a day. An occasional organ-grinder wanders in and wanders out again, disgusted. In holiday-time the street is the arena of the young bloods of the neighbourhood, and the house-holders have an opportunity of studying the manly art of self-defence. And yet Norfolk Street has one claim to be respectable, for it contains not a single shop—unless you count the public-house at the corner, which is really in the King’s Road.
The door of No. 7 bore a brass plate inscribed with the legend “W.D. Pitman, Artist.” It was not a particularly clean brass plate, nor was No. 7 itself a particularly inviting place of residence. And yet it had a character of its own, such as may well quicken the pulse of the reader’s curiosity. For here was the home of an artist—and a distinguished artist too, highly distinguished by his ill-success—which had never been made the subject of an article in the illustrated magazines. No wood-engraver had ever reproduced “a corner in the back drawing-room” or “the studio mantelpiece” of No. 7; no young lady author had ever commented on “the unaffected simplicity” with which Mr. Pitman received her in the midst of his “treasures.” It is an omission I would gladly supply, but our business is only with the backward parts and “abject rear” of this æsthetic dwelling.