It was a dreadful night.

The early dawn was in the sky when Waymark reached Beaufort Street.  With no thought of sleep, he sat down at once and wrote to Mr. Woodstock, relating what had happened.  “So, you see,” he concluded, “with the end of July has come the decision of my fate, as we agreed it should.  If I had seen you to-morrow, as I proposed, I know not what folly I might have been guilty of.  Tell Ida everything at once; I shall never see her again.  But do you, if you can, he my friend still.  I need your help in this horrible situation.  Meet me—­will you?—­at the office to-morrow night, say at eight o’clock.”

This letter would reach Tottenham on Monday morning.  Waymark went to the office at the hour he had mentioned, and waited till ten o’clock.  But Mr. Woodstock had not been in St. John Street Road that day, and the waiting was in vain.

The garden-party had not been without its effect upon Mr. Woodstock.  On the following day, when he was sitting again with Ida in the garden, he recurred to the conversation of a week ago, and seemed desirous of leading the girl to speak freely on the subjects which had such power to stir her.  Ida had been waiting for this; she rejoiced at the promise it held out, and unburdened her heart.  Would he not do yet more for the poor people in his houses I could not their homes in some way be made more fit for human beings?  With careful observation of his mood, she led him on to entertain thoughts he had never dreamt of, and before they parted she had all but obtained a promise that he would go over the whole of his property and really see what could be done.  Ida’s influence over him had by this time become very great; the old man was ready to do much for the sake of pleasing her.

On the following Tuesday he went down into Litany Lane in company with a builder, and proceeded to investigate each of the houses.  In many instances the repairs, to be of any use, would have to be considerable; there would be a difficulty in executing them whilst the tenants remained in possession.  One possibility occurred to him in the course of examination, and he determined to make use of it; he would create room by getting rid of the worst tenants, all those, in fact, whose presence was pollution to the neighbourhood, and whom it was hopeless to think of reforming.  In this way he would be able to shift about the remaining lodgers without too great a loss to himself, and avoid the necessity of turning helpless people into the street.

Mr. Woodstock had considerably more knowledge of the state of his property, and of the tenants inhabiting it, than is usual with landlords of his kind; for all that, the present examination brought to light not a few things which were startling even to him.  Since Waymark had ceased to act as his collector, the office had been filled by an agent of the ordinary kind, and Mr. Woodstock had, till just now, taken less interest in the property than formerly.  Things