But this involved a dilemma. A lodging where
my property would be safe implied a landlady apt
to be suspicious of a gentleman leading a double
life; while a landlady who would not bother her
head over the double life of her lodgers would
imply lodgings where property was unsafe. To
avoid the dilemma was what had brought me to
Johnny Upright. A detective of thirty-odd years
continuous service in the East End, known far and
wide by a name given him by a convicted felon in
the dock, he was just the man to find me an honest
landlady, and make her rest easy concerning the
strange comings and goin's of which I might be
guilty.

His two daughters beat him home from church,
and pretty girls they were in their Sunday
dresses, withal it was the certain weak and delicate
prettiness which characterizes the Cockney lasses,
a prettiness which is no more than a promise
with no grip on time, and doomed to fade quickly
away like the color from a sunset sky.

They looked me over with frank curiosity, as
though I were some sort of a strange animal, and
then ignored me utterly for the rest of my wait.
Then Johnny Upright himself arrived, and I was
summoned upstairs to confer with him.

"Speak loud," he interrupted my opening words.
"I ve got a bad cold, and I can t hear well."

[[20]]

p019 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p020w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p021

v?