Pagina 9 van 1294

With a sinking heart and a nervous tremor, he went up to a huge

house which on one side looked on to the canal, and on the other

into the street. This house was let out in tiny tenements and was

inhabited by working people of all kinds--tailors, locksmiths,

cooks, Germans of sorts, girls picking up a living as best they

could, petty clerks, etc. There was a continual coming and going

through the two gates and in the two courtyards of the house.

Three or four door-keepers were employed on the building. The

young man was very glad to meet none of them, and at once slipped

unnoticed through the door on the right, and up the staircase. It

was a back staircase, dark and narrow, but he was familiar with

it already, and knew his way, and he liked all these

surroundings: in such darkness even the most inquisitive eyes

were not to be dreaded.