He had known Miss March about a year, and at the time of his first acquaintaince with her, she must have come very fresh from this engagement.

To study the man to whom Roberta March had been willing to engage herself, was, to Lawrence's mode of thinking, if not a prerequisite procedure in his contemplated course of action, at least a very desirable one.
But he was rather surprised to find that no one knew much about Mr Junius Keswick, or could give him any account of his present whereabouts, although he had been, at the time when his engagement was in force, a resident of New York.

To consult a directory was, therefore, an obvious first step in the affair; and, with this intent, Mr Croft entered, one morning, an apothecary's shop in a street which, though a busy one, was in a rather out-of-the-way part of the city.
"We haven't any directory, sir," said the clerk, "but if you will step across the street you can find one at that little shop with the green door.

Everybody goes there to look at the directory." The green door on the opposite side of the street, approached by a single flat step of stone, had a tin sign upon it, on which was painted: "INFORMATION OF EVERY VARIETY FURNISHED WITHIN." Pushing open the door, Lawrence entered a long, narrow room, not very well lighted, with a short counter on one side, and some desks, partially screened by a curtain, at the farther end.

A boy was behind the counter, and to him Lawrence addressed himself, asking permission to look at a city directory.
"One cent, if you look yourself; three cents, if we look," said the boy, producing a thick volume from beneath the counter.
"One cent ?" said Lawrence, smiling at the oddity of this charge, as he opened the book and turned to the letter K.
"Yes," said the boy, "and if the fine print hurts your eyes, we'll look for three cents." At this moment a man came from one of the desks at the other end of the room, and handed the boy a letter with which that young person immediately departed.