Round the Red Lamp

arried man. By trade he was a gentleman's outfitter in the New North Road, and the competition of business squeezed out of him the little character that was left. In his hope of conciliating custome

ould ever reach him. Yet birth, and lust, and illness, and death are changeless things, and when one of these harsh facts springs out upon a man at so

s and the bank of boxes in which the more valuable hats were screened from the sunlight. She kept the books and sent out the bills. No one but she knew the joys and sorrows which crept into his small life. She had shared his exultations when the gentleman who was going to India had bought ten dozen shirts and an incredible number of collars, and she had been as stricken as he when, after the goods had gone, the bill was returned

unharmed, and why should not his? He was himself one of a family of fourteen, and yet his mother was alive and hearty. It was quite the exception for anyt

hite garments with frill work and ribbons began to arrive among the big consignments of male necessities. And then one evening, as Johnson was ticketing the scarfs

the doctor had just gone to Harman Street to attend a man in a fit. Johnson started off for Harman Street, losing a little of his primness as he became more anxious. Two full cabs but no empty ones passed him on the way. At Harman Street he learned that the doctor had gone on to a case of measles, fortunately he had left the address-69 Dunstan Road, at the o

urniture was massive, and the books in the shelves were sombre, and a squat black clock ticked mournfully on the mantelpiece. It told him that it was half-past seven, and that he had been gone an hour and a quarter. Whatever would the women think of him! Every time that a distant door slammed he sprang

me for you," he cried; "the wif

perhaps, and rush excitedly with him through the gaslit streets. Instead of that Dr. Miles threw his umbrel

me, didn't you?" he asked

er. Johnson the outfitter, yo

or, glancing at a list of names in a note-boo

don

ur first. You'll know m

it was time you

shall have an all-night affair, I fancy. You can't get an engine to go

cooked for you-somethin

I can do no good in the earlier stages. Go home and say th

erience which seemed so appallingly important to him, was the merest everyday matter of business to the medical man who could not have lived for a year had he not, ami

mother-in-law reproachfully, look

p it!" he gaspe

, poor dear, before she can

t, turned into the shop. There he sent the lad home and busied himself frantically in putting up shutters and turning out boxes. When all was closed and finished he seated himself in the parlour behind the shop. But he coul

t for, Jane

r. Johnson. She says

r all if his wife could think of such things. So light-hearted was he that he asked for a cup a

s she?" he a

better," said Johns

doctor. "Perhaps it will do if

coat. "We are so glad that you have come. And, doctor, plea

straining his ears to catch what was going on, he heard the scraping of a chair as it was drawn along the floor, and a moment later he heard the door fly open and someone come rushing downstairs. Johnson sprang up with his hair bristling, thinking that some dreadful thing had occurred, but it w

ing with his hand upon the doo

nswered deprecatingly, mopping

d Dr. Miles. "The case is not all that we co

ger, sir?" ga

worse. I have given her a draught. I saw as I passed that they have been doing a little building opposite to

e, and who felt none the less that it was very soothing that the doctor should be a

ended his wife twice and saw him through the typhoid when they took up the drains in Prince Stree

e get throug

id very well.

g with a questioning face, and t

to have reacted upon his hearing, and he was able to follow the most trivial things in the room above. Once, when the beer was still heartening him, he nerved himself to creep on tiptoe up the stair and to listen to what was going on. The bedroom door was half an inch open, and through the slit he could catch a glimpse of the clean-shaven face of the doctor, looking wearier and more anxious than before. Then he rushed downstairs like a lunatic, and running to the door he tried to distract his thoughts by watching what; was going on in

is face was white and clammy, and his nerves had been numbed into a half conscious state by the long monotony of misery. But suddenly all his feelings leapt into keen life again as he heard th

his face flushed, his forehead dotted with beads of perspiration. There was a peculiar fierceness in his eye, and about the lines of his mouth, a fighting look as befitted a man who for hours on end had been striving w

e's heart is not strong, and she has some symptoms which I do not like. What I wanted to say is that

hat he could hardly grasp the doctor's meaning. The other, se

uineas," said he. "But I think Pritch

the best man,"

three guineas. He is a

if he would pull her thro

will give it to you. Tell him I want the A. C. E. mixture. Her heart is to

e night-bell brought down a sleepy, half-clad assistant, who handed him a stoppered glass bottle and a cloth bag which contained something which clinked when you moved it. Johnson thrust the bottle into his pocket, seized the green bag, and pressing his hat firmly down ran as hard as he

there. But the run had freshened his wits and he saw that the mi

ooked up at the windows, but there was no sign of life. He was approaching the bel

t," cried the voice. "Say who you are

he end of a speaking-tube hung out of the

me to meet Dr. Miles at

rieked the ir

North Roa

is three guineas, p

"You are to bring a bottle o

ht! Wait

th grizzled hair, flung open the door. As he emer

" and he impatiently growled some

as so many others have been, by the needs of his own increasing family to set the commercial before t

ng to keep up with Johnson for five minutes. "I would go quicker if I could, my d

the door open for the doctor when he came. He heard the two meet outside the bed-room, and caught scraps of their con

s silence for a few minutes and then a curious drunken, mumbling sing-song voice came quavering up, very unlike anything which he had heard hitherto. At the same time a sweetish, insidious scent, imperceptible perhaps to any nerves less strained than his, crept down th

bdued murmur of the doctors' voices. Then he heard Mrs. Peyton say something, in a tone as of fear or expostulation, and again the doctors murmured together. For twenty minutes he stood there leaning against the wall, listening to the occasional rumbles of talk without being

th his ears straining. They were moving slowly about. They were talking in subdued tones. Still minute after minute passing, and no word from the voice for which he listened. His nerves were dulled by his night of trouble, and he waited in li

dead?" h

," answered

r fierce agony which lay within it, learned for the second time that there were springs of joy also whi

I g

few mi

w inarticulate. "Here are your three guineas,

ior man, and they laugh

them and heard their talk as th

asty at o

to have y

on't you step round and

I'm expecting

start in life. He felt that he was a stronger and a deeper man. Perhaps all this suffering had an object then. It might prove to be a blessing both to his wife and to him. The v

n, without waiting for an answer,

e looked out at him the strangest little red face with crumpled features, moist, loose lips, and eyelids which

cried the grandmoth

e it yet for that long night of misery. He caught sight of a white face in the bed

over! Lucy, dear,

now. I never was s

fixed upon the

talk," said

ave me," whis

he night had been long and dark but the day was the sweeter and the purer in consequence. London was waking up. The roar began to rise f