Mavis followed his directions and nearly missed the first on the right, this being a narrow turning.  Many-storied buildings, looking like warehouses, were on either side of this; their height was such that the merest strip of sky could be seen when Mavis looked up.  She then came to an open door.  Above this was a fanlight, which fitfully lighted a passage terminating in a flight of uncarpeted stone steps.  It was all very uninviting.  The girl looked about for someone of whom to make further inquiries.  No one came in or went out; all that Mavis could see was one or two over-dressed men, who were prowling about on the further side of the way.  A little distance up the turning was another open door lit in the same way as the first.  This also admitted to a similar passage, which, also, terminated in a flight of bare stone steps.  Just as she got there, two young women flaunted out; they were in evening dress, but Mavis thought the petticoats that they aggressively displayed were cheap, torn, and soiled.  They pushed past Mavis, to be joined by two of the prowlers in the street.  Mavis walked inside, where she waited for some time without seeing anyone; then, an odd-looking, malformed creature came up, seemingly from a hole at the end of the passage.  She had scarcely any nose; she wore spectacles and the uniform of a servant.  Before she disappeared up the stairs, Mavis saw that she carried blankets in one hand, a housemaid’s pail in the other.  She breathed noisily through her nostrils.  When she was well out of sight, Mavis thought that she might have got the information she wanted from this person.  Presently, the clattering of a pail was heard, a sound which gradually came nearer.  In due course, the malformed creature appeared at the foot of the stairs.

“I’ve come,” said Mavis to this person.

“’Ave yer?”

The person vanished, seemingly through the floor.

Mavis was taken aback by the woman’s rudeness; even to this creature, shop-girls were, apparently, of small account.  By and by, Mavis heard her clumping up from below.  When she appeared, Mavis put authority into her voice as she said: 

“Can I see anyone here?”

“If you’ve any eyes in your ’ead,” snorted the servant, as she disappeared from view.

Still no one came.  Mavis was making up her mind to explore the downstair regions when the footfalls of the rude person were heard coming down.

“I’ve been waiting quite ten minutes,” Mavis began angrily, as the person came in view.

“’Ave yer?”

“Look here, I’m not used to be answered like that,” Mavis began; but she was wasting her breath; the servant went on her way in complete disregard of Mavis’s wrath.

Mavis thought of trying another entrance, when a young woman came downstairs.  She had a pasty face, with a turned-up nose and large, romantic eyes.  She carried a book under her arm.  When she saw Mavis, she stopped to look curiously at her.