Running downstairs, he saw his dirty boots staring him in the face.  “Is there any peace in ever climbing up the climbing wave?” he quoted, with a sinking heart.  There was no help for it.  The things had to be cleaned, or people would wonder where he had been.  Searching in a cupboard full of oily rags, grimy leathers, and other filthy instruments, he found the blacking and the brushes, and presently the boots began to shine in patches here and there.  Then he washed again, and as he flung open the front door, he kicked the milk all down the steps.  It ran in a broad, white stream along the tiled pavement to the gate.

“There goes breakfast!” he thought, but the disaster reached further.  Hastily fetching a pail of water, he soused it over the steps, with the result that all the whitening came off and mingled with the milk upon the tiles.  A second pail only heightened the deplorable aspect, and he splashed large quantities of the water over his trousers and boots.  He felt it running through his socks.  It was impossible to go to the office like that, or to leave his friend’s house in such a state.

He took off his coat and began pushing the milky water to and fro with a broom.  Seeing the maid next door making great wet curves on her steps with a sort of stone, he called to her to ask how she did it.

“Same as other people, saucy,” she retorted at once.

“Is that a bath-brick you are manipulating?” Mr. Clarkson asked.

“Bath-brick, indeed!  What do you take me for?” she replied, and continued swirling the stuff round and round.

After a further search in the cupboard, Mr. Clarkson discovered a similar piece of stone, and stooping down, began to swirl it about in the same manner.  The stuff was deposited in yellowish curves, which he believed would turn white.  But it showed the marks so obviously that, to break up the outlines, he carefully dabbed the steps all over with the flat of his hands.  “The effect will be like an Academician’s stippling,” he thought, but when he had swept the surface of the garden path into the road, he scrutinised his handiwork with some satisfaction.

Hardly had he cleaned his boots again, washed again, and changed his socks, when there came another knocking at the door, polite and important this time.  He found a well-dressed man, with tall hat, frock-coat, and umbrella, who inquired if he could speak to the proprietor.

“Mr. Davies is away,” said Mr. Clarkson, fixing his eyes on the stranger’s boots.  “I beg your pardon, but may I remind you that you are standing on my steps?  I’m afraid you will whiten the soles of your boots, I mean.”

“Thank you, that’s of no consequence,” said the stranger, entering, and leaving two great brown footprints on the step and several white ones on the passage.  “But I thought I might venture to submit to your consideration a pound of our unsurpassable tea.”

“Tea?” cried Mr. Clarkson, with joyous eagerness.  “I suppose you don’t happen to have milk, sugar, bread and butter, and an egg or two concealed about your person, do you?”