There are a good many boarding-houses to be found in Primrose Crescent, where City clerks, literary aspirants and coming actors are to be found. A touch of Bohemianism pervades the whole street, and perhaps in the future, neat tablets let into the walls of the houses will inform posterity that Horatio Muggins, the celebrated poet, and Simon Memphison, the famous actor, resided there. But fame is as yet far from the quiet street, and the dwellers therein are still struggling upward or downward as their inclinations may lead them. Mrs. Mulgy was the landlady of one of these boarding-houses, and by dint of hard work and incessant watchfulness managed to keep the wolf from the door; but, alas, the wolf was never far off, and it took all Mrs. Mulgy's time to keep him at his distance. The basement of her mansion was devoted to the kitchen, the presiding deity of which was a pale, thin-looking servant, with a hungry eye and a deprecating manner, who answered to the name of Rondalina, which sounded well and cost nothing. She used to ascend from the kitchen like a ghost from the tomb, wander about the house to minister to the wants of the boarders, and then return to the grave, or rather the kitchen, once more. A rising musician occupied the ground-floor, who went to bed very early in the morning, and got up very late in the afternoon. He was writing an opera which was to make his name, but meantime devoted his spare moments to instructing small children in the art of music, which tried his temper greatly, and rendered him morose. On the first floor dwelt Mr. Myles Desmond, whose occupation was that of a journalist, and, being good-looking, smartly dressed and well connected, was Mrs. Mulgy's trump-card in the way of lodgers. Above was the habitation of a maiden lady, by name Miss Jostler, who called herself an artist, and painted fire-screens, Xmas cards and such like things, with conventional landscapes and flowers. In the attics lived several young men who, having no money and plenty of spirits, formed quite a little colony of Bohemians, being principally concerned with theatricals and literary life. It was a queer place altogether, and the individuals were a kind of happy family except that they did not mix much with one another, but they all paid their bills comparatively regular, and so Mrs. Mulgy was content. It was to this place that Mr. Dowker took his way the day after his interview with Ellersby. As he had seen Madame Rêne, Lydia Fenny, Mrs. Povy, and Mr. Ellersby all in one day, and obtained valuable information from each, he thought he would defer his call on Mr. Desmond, and spent the night in arranging all the evidence he had acquired during the day. The result was very satisfactory to himself, and he wended his steps towards Mr. Desmond's abode in a very happy frame of mind.