In the second minute he asked my age, height, and weight, and looked me over.

And in the third minute, as we shook hands at parting, he said: "All right, Jack.

I'll remember you and keep track." I breathed a sigh of relief.

Having burnt my ships behind me, I was now free to plunge into that human wilderness of which nobody seemed to know anything.

But at once I encountered a new difficulty in the shape of my cabby, a grey-whiskered and eminently decorous personage who had imperturbably driven me for several hours about the "City." "Drive me down to the East End," I ordered, taking my seat.
"Where, sir ?" he demanded with frank surprise.
"To the East End, anywhere.