continual interest to local landladies,
among whom were several lifelong residents, on friendly terms of old
time with the Jordan family. To them it seemed an astonishing thing that
a man in such circumstances had not yet married; granting this
eccentricity, they could not imagine what made him change his abode so
often. Not a landlady in Islington but would welcome Mr. Jordan in her
rooms, and, having got him, do her utmost to prolong the connection. He
had been known to quit a house on the paltriest excuse, removing to
another in which he could not expect equally good treatment. There was
no accounting for it: it must be taken as an ultimate mystery of life,
and made the most of as a perennial topic of neighbourly conversation.

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