As to the desirability of having Mr. Jordan for a lodger there could be no difference of opinion among rational womankind.  Mrs. Wiggins, indeed, had taken his sudden departure from her house so ill that she always spoke of him abusively; but who heeded Mrs. Wiggins?  Even in the sadness of hope deferred, those ladies who had entertained him once, and speculated on his possible return, declared Mr. Jordan a ’thorough gentleman’.  Lodgers, as a class, do not recommend themselves in Islington; Mr. Jordan shone against the dusky background with almost dazzling splendour.  To speak of lodgers as of cattle, he was a prize creature.  A certain degree of comfort he firmly exacted; he might be a trifle fastidious about cooking; he stood upon his dignity; but no one could say that he grudged reward for service rendered.  It was his practice to pay more than the landlady asked.  Twenty-five shillings a week, you say?  I shall give you twenty-eight. But—­’ and with raised forefinger he went through the catalogue of his demands.  Everything must be done precisely as he directed; even in the laying of his table he insisted upon certain minute peculiarities, and to forget one of them was to earn that gaze of awful reprimand which Mr. Jordan found (or thought) more efficacious than any spoken word.  Against this precision might be set his strange indulgence in the matter of bills; he merely regarded the total, was never known to dispute an item.  Only twice in his long experience had he quitted a lodging because of exorbitant charges, and on these occasions he sternly refused to discuss the matter.  ’Mrs. Hawker, I am paying your account with the addition of one week’s rent.  Your rooms will be vacant at eleven o’clock tomorrow morning.’  And until the hour of departure no entreaty, no prostration, could induce him to utter a syllable.

It was on the 1st of June, 1889, his forty-fifth birthday, that Mr. Jordan removed from quarters he had occupied for ten months, and became a lodger in the house of Mrs. Elderfield.

Mrs. Elderfield, a widow, aged three-and-thirty, with one little girl, was but a casual resident in Islington; she knew nothing of Mr. Jordan, and made no inquiries about him.  Strongly impressed, as every woman must needs be, by his air and tone of mild authority, she congratulated herself on the arrival of such an inmate; but no subservience appeared in her demeanour; she behaved with studious civility, nothing more.  Her words were few and well chosen.  Always neatly dressed, yet always busy, she moved about the house with quick, silent step, and cleanliness marked her path.  The meals were well cooked, well served.  Mr. Jordan being her only lodger, she could devote to him an undivided attention.  At the end of his first week the critical gentleman felt greater satisfaction than he had ever known.

The bill lay upon his table at breakfast-time.  He perused the items, and, much against his habit, reflected upon them.  Having breakfasted, he rang the bell.