d not
understand when she was spoken to, but nodded her head and looked at
them with large, woebegone, wandering eyes. Every effort to rouse her
was vain.

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, be 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 t