CHAPTER XIX

AFTER the excitement of the past few days, and her terrible experience in Hamburg, to say nothing of the fact that she had landed from a steamer under peculiar circumstances, and had been tramping the country half the night, it is not to be wondered at that, by the time we reached Park Lane, Valerie was completely knocked up. Pharos had accordingly in- sisted that she should at once retire to her room and endeavour to obtain the rest of which she stood so much in need.
" For the next few weeks, — that is to say, until the end of the season, — I intend that you shall both enjoy yourselves," he said with the utmost affability, when we were alone together, " to the top of your bent. And that reminds me of something, Forrester. Your betrothal must be announced as speedily as possible. It is due to Valerie that this should be done. I presume you do not wish the engagement to be a long one ? "
" Indeed, I do not," I answered, not, however, with- out a slight feeling of surprise that he should speak so openly and so soon upon the subject. " As you may suppose, it cannot be too short to please me. And our marriage ? "
X
322 PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN
"Your marriage can take place as soon after the season as you please," he continued with the same ex- traordinary geniality. "You will not find me placing any obstacles in your way."
"But you have never asked me as to my means, or my power to support her," I said, putting his last remark aside as if I had not heard it.
" I have not," he answered. " There is no need for me to do so. Your means are well known to me ; besides, it has always been my intention to make provision for Valerie myself. Provided you behave yourselves, and do not play me any more tricks such as I had to complain of in Hamburg, you will find that she will bring you a handsome little nest-egg that will make it quite unnecessary for you ever to feel any anxiety on the score of money. But we will discuss all that more fully later on. See, here are a number of invitations that have arrived for us. It looks as if we are not likely to be dull during our stay in London."
So saying, he placed upwards of fifty envelopes before me, many of which I was surprised to find were addressed to myself. These I opened with the first feeling of a return to my old social life that I had experienced since I had re-entered London. The invitations hailed, for the most part, from old friends. Some were for dinners, others for musical " At homes," while at least a dozen were for dances, one of the last- named being from the Duchess of Amersham.
" I have taken the liberty of accepting that on your behalf," said Pharos, picking the card up. " The Duchess of Amersham and I are old friends, and I
PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN 323
think it will brighten Valerie and yourself up a little if we look in at her ball an hour or so to-night"
" But surely," I said, " we have only just reached
London, and " Here I paused, not knowing quite
how to proceed.
"What objection have you to raise?" he asked, with a sudden flash of the old angry look in his eyes.
" My only objection was that I thought it a little dangerous," I said. " On your own confession, it was the plague from which Valerie was suffering in Ham- burg."
Pharos laughed a short, harsh laugh, that grated upon the ear.
" You must really forgive me, Forrester, for having deceived you," he said, " but I had to do it. It was necessary for me to use any means I could think of for getting you to England. As you have reason to know, Valerie is possessed of a peculiarly sensitive temperament. She is easily influenced, particularly by myself, and the effect can be achieved at any distance. If I were in London and she in Vienna, I could, by merely exercising my will, not only induce her to do anything I might wish, but could make her bodily health exactly what I pleased. You will there- fore see that it would be an easy task for me to cause her to be taken ill in Hamburg. Her second self— that portion of her mind which is so susceptible to my influence, as you saw for yourself — witnessed my arrival in Prague and at the hotel. As soon as I entered the room in which she was waiting for me, the attraction culminated in a species of fainting fit.
324 PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN
I despatched you post haste to a chemist with a pre- scription which I thought would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for you to get made up. At any rate, it would, I knew, serve my purpose if it kept you some time away."
" Then you mean that while I was hurrying from place to place like a madman, suffering untold agonies of fear, and believing that Valerie's life depended upon my speed, you were in reality deceiving me ? "
" If I am to be truthful, I must confess that I was," he replied ; " but I give you my word the motive was a good one. Had I not done so, who knows what would have happened ? The plague was raging on the Continent, and you were both bent on getting away from me again on the first opportunity. What was the result? Working on your fears for her, I managed to overcome the difficulties, and got you safely into England. Valerie has not been as ill as you supposed. I have sanctioned your engagement, and, as I said just now, if you will let me, will provide for you both for life, and will assist in lifting you to the highest pinnacle of fame. After this explanation, surely you are not going to be ungenerous enough to still feel vindictive against me ? "
" It was a cruel trick to play me," I answered ; " but since the result has not been as serious as I supposed, and you desire me to believe you did it all with a good object, I will endeavour to think no more about it."
" You have decided sensibly," he said. " And now let us arrange what we shall do this evening. My proposal is that we rest this afternoon, that you dine
PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN 325
with me at my club, the Antiquarian, in the evening, and that afterwards I show you London as I see it in my character of Pharos the Egyptian. I think you will find the programme both interesting and instructive. Shortly before midnight we might return here, pick Valerie up, and go on to the Duchess of Amersham's ball. Does that meet with your ap- proval ? "
I was so relieved at finding that Valerie had not really been attacked by the plague, that however much I should have liked to spend the evening alone with her, I could see no reason for declining Pharos's invita- tion. I accordingly stated that I should be very glad to do as he wished.
We followed out his plan to the letter. After lunch we retired to our respective apartments and rested until it was time to prepare for the evening. At the hour appointed, I descended to the drawing-room, where I found Pharos awaiting me. He was dressed as I had seen him at Lady Medenham's well-remembered " At home " — that is to say, he wore his velvet jacket and black skull cap, and, as usual, carried his gold- topped walking-stick in his hand.
" The carriage is at the door, I think," he said as I entered, " so if you are ready we will set off."
I signified my assent, and we accordingly proceeded into the hall, where one of the menservants who had waited upon us in Naples and on board the yacht assisted Pharos into his great-coat, and then performed the same operation for me, while another opened the door.
A neat brougham was drawn up beside the pave-
326 PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN
ment, we took our places in it, and ten minutes later had reached the Antiquarian Club, of all the establish- ments of the kind in London perhaps the most mag- nificent. How Pharos became a member of it, I do not know; but there, as at Pompeii, Cairo, Luxor, Prague, and, indeed, every other European city, he seemed to be not only quite at home, but equally well known. The dignified servants having removed our coats, we ascended the marble staircase and passed through the ante-room, decorated with the portraits of many distinguished members past and present, to the dining-room itself. A more beautiful room could scarcely be imagined. Wide and lofty, and yet boast- ing the most harmonious proportions, the dining-room at the Antiquarian Club always remains in my mind the most stately of the many stately banqueting halls in London. Pharos's preference, I found, was for a table in one of the large windows overlooking the Embankment and the river, and this had accordingly been prepared for him.
" If you will sit there," said Pharos, motioning with his hand to a chair on the right, " I will take this one opposite you."
I accordingly seated myself in the place he in«* dicated.
" Though my fare is necessarily simplicity itself," he said, as we unfolded our serviettes, " I have come to the conclusion that there are only four places at which to dine in Europe. The first is the Vladimir Club in St. Petersburg, overlooking the Neusky Pros- pect, where they have secured the services of the inimitable Benitot ; the next is the Metternich Res-
PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN 327
taurant in the Ring Strasse in Vienna; the third is the Cafe de Parnassus in Paris ; while the last is this club in London. Doubtless you have dined here many times before ? "
" Once or twice," I answered ; " but that is sufficient to enable me to endorse all you say concerning it."
And, indeed, the encomium I had passed upon it was well deserved. The dinner was perfect in every respect. My host himself, however, dined after his own fashion, in the manner I have elsewhere described. Nevertheless, he did the honours of the table with the most perfect grace, and had any stranger been watching us, he would have found it difficult to believe that the relationship existing between us was not of the most cordial nature possible.
By eight o'clock the room was crowded, and with as fine a collection of well-born, well-dressed, and well- mannered men as could be found in London. The decorations, the portraits upon the walls, the liveried servants, the snowy drapery and sparkling silver, all helped to make up a picture that, after the sordidness of the Margrave of Brandenburg, was like a glimpse of a new life.
"This is the first side of that London life I am desirous of presenting to you," said Pharos in his capacity of showman, after I had finished my dessert, and had enjoyed a couple of glasses of the famous Antiquarian port — "one side of that luxury and ex- travagance which is fast drawing this great city to its doom. It would interest you, I am sure, to know the histories of the people now dining in this room. Many of them are known to me, and at more I can
328 PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN
give a very shrewd guess. Do you see that tall, well- bred-looking man, with the grey hair and the hawk-like nose, sitting in the window yonder?"
I answered in the affirmative. He was an individual I had often seen before, but with whose name I was not familiar.
" His history alone would be worth writing," con- tinued Pharos. " Though the world is not aware of it, he has, on more than one occasion, been invited to leave Russia at a few hours' notice. Some day he will not leave at all. Two or three times in the year you will find him at Dover, and when the boat comes in you will see him meet some curious-looking indi- vidual, speak a few words to him, and then return to London in the same train, but in a different carriage. If you were to speak to him now, you would find him a quiet, unassuming man. Some day, however, he will suddenly disappear, and this club will know him no more. The little stout fellow with the bald head, at the next table, has been a member, for a number of years, and though by no means handsome himself, he boasts one of the most beautiful and popular wives in England. They keep an excellent establishment, a yacht at Cowes, a hunting-box near Leicester, and a villa on the Riviera, yet it is proverbial that neither of them possesses, nor has ever been known to possess, a single penny piece. The tall, thin man with the big moustache next him is the younger son of a peer, whose name is as old as that of England itself. He earns his livelihood pigeon-shooting and billiard-play- ing, and is little more than a titled blackleg. The tall, stout man with the uncomfortable expression,
PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN 329
dining with the prematurely old man at the table under the big portrait, has made his fortune in South Africa, and is desirous of entering the world of fashion. To that end he has been taken up by his present companion, of whom you can see he is so proud — the notoriously impecunious Earl of Smatterdale. The latter's wife ran away from him last year with an American millionaire, and ever since that time he has been existing on the damages the Court awarded him, which were not as big as they would otherwise have been, for the simple reason that he had to pay half away as commission to her. So I could continue from end to end of the room. They make an interest- ing study, do they not ? but scarcely edifying from a humanitarian point of view. Now, if you have quite finished, we might move on. We have a good deal of work to get through, and very little time in which to do it."
I acquiesced, and we accordingly descended to the hall and donned our coats.
"If you would care to smoke, permit me to offer you one of the same brand of cigarettes of which you expressed your approval in Naples," said Pharos, pro- ducing from his pocket a silver case, which he handed to me. I took one of the delicacies it contained arid lit it. Then we passed out of the hall to Pharos's own carriage, which was waiting in the street for us. As on the previous occasion that I had smoked his cigarettes, I was compelled to admit the excellence of the tobacco. And also, as before, it had a wonder- fully soothing effect upon me, while it caused me to feel better disposed towards my companion than I had
330 PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN
done for some time past. When that one was finished, I willingly accepted another, and by the time that was too hot to hold we had reached our destination, the Renaissance Theatre. Knowing how crowded this place of entertainment usually is in the season, I had been wondering whether we should experience any difficulty in obtaining seats. But as soon as we entered the vestibule an attendant came forward, and, bowing to my companion, informed him that by the manager's orders a box had been placed at his disposal. We accordingly followed him down a few steps and along a narrow passage towards a box on the prompt side of the stage. The orchestra were playing, but the curtain had not yet risen. The dress-circle, pit, and gallery were filled to overflowing, while the stalls — the fashionable portion of the house — contained scarcely an occupant.
" Here you have an opportunity of studying one of the most curious phases of London Society," he said, as he pulled his chair forward and looked down on the place to which I have just referred. " It does not matter how interesting the play about to be performed may be, it is quite certain that a large proportion of the stalls will not put in an appearance until the cur- tain has risen, when they will interrupt the action of the play and disturb the comfort of the house, with that superb disregard for other people's feelings which is so characteristic of the fashionable world. During the progress of the piece they will discuss their own affairs with each other in voices so audible that those about them who are anxious to hear the play can scarcely do so."
PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN 331
Bitter as his words were, I had to confess that in a measure they were true. In this particular instance the latter portion of the indictment would have been a distinct advantage, for the play itself was a naus- eating one in every way, and ten years before would have been impossible. I glanced at Pharos to see what he thought of it, and found him sitting back in the box with an expression of fiendish rage upon his face, as if, were such a thing possible, he would will- ingly destroy every man and woman within the building.
" What think you of the authors of such a play and of the men who bring their wives and daughters to listen to it, and, while admitting its indecency, excuse themselves by saying that the lesson it teaches is a salutary one ? I beg you to observe the faces of the young girls. On my word, it is a curious age that can permit such things, and a still more curious age that can enjoy them. And these are the people who rifle the tombs of the dead kings and queens of Egypt, and write and talk patronizingly about the civilization of the Ancients. But it will not last. A time, however.
is coming, and is even now at hand, when But,
see, the curtain is falling ; we have heard enough. Let us proceed to our next place of amusement."
Leaving our box, we made our way to the front of the theatre once more, where we entered the carriage which was still waiting for us, and drove off in the direction of Charing Cross. Throughout the drive I sat back in my corner watching the lamp-lit streets, the cabs dashing past me, and the crowds upon the pavements, with that curious sense of being with them,
332 PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN
and yet not of them, which I always experienced in Pharos's company. At last we drew up before the illuminated portals of the Occidental Music Hall.
" Let us enter," said Pharos, " and see what we can discover here."
We did so, and as soon as we had paid for our ad- mission, mounted a carpeted staircase and passed into the theatre itself. Many and curious were the glances thrown at my companion by the people about us as we entered, and I noticed, with a satisfaction for which I could scarcely account at the time, the expressions of fear and undisguised abhorrence his unique personality inspired in them. To attempt to describe the building itself, since it is so well known, would be waste of time. It is only necessary for me to say that on the stage a brilliant ballet was proceeding, though it might have been performed a thousand miles away for all the at- tention the men and women about me bestowed upon it. The entire house was impregnated with tobacco smoke, in the stalls powdered footmen passed hither and thither with salvers of refreshments, crowds of young old men and old young men clustered round the bars, the orchestra played as if each individual member were determined to execute a certain number of notes in an allotted time, the couple of dozen scantily clothed females upon the stage kicked and pirouetted with a vigour that compensated for their lack of grace, while in the promenade itself, where Pharos and I had taken up our position, the scene, though of a different kind, was scarcely less animated.
" Here you have yet another phase of English life," said my companion, after we had been watching it for
PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN 333
some minutes without speaking ; and then he added, " I will leave you to draw your own conclusions from it."
For upwards of ten minutes we remained silent spectators of all that was going on. Then Pharos made a sign to me and moved towards the door. I followed close at his heels, and when we were in the street once more took my place in the cab beside him. This time we drove to Westminster and entered the House of Commons. A pass had been previously ob- tained, and with it we ascended to the Members' Gallery. The House was crowded, for the business then before Parliament dealt with the plague, and was exceedingly important.
As usual, Pharos had his own opinions concerning the Chamber to express, and as usual they were equally far from being complimentary to the people he de- scribed. As at the Occidental, as soon as he had pointed out to me the sordid side of. their lives and characters, and the pettiness of their ambition, the show of party feeling they exhibited even in the face of a grave national peril, he led me away again, saying as he did so, —
" We will now return to pick up Valerie, after which we will drive to Amersham House, where I have no doubt we shall meet many of those whom we have seen here to-night."
We found Valerie awaiting us in the drawing-room. She was dressed for the ball, and, superb as I thought she looked on the evening she had been presented to the Emperor in Prague, I had to confess to myself that she was even more beautiful now. Her face was flushed
334 PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN
with excitement, and her lovely eyes sparkled like twin stars. I hastened to congratulate her on her altered appearance, and had scarcely done so before the butler announced that the carriage was at the door. Where- upon we departed for Carlton House Terrace.
On the subject of the ball itself it is not my inten- tion to say very much ; let it suffice that, possibly by reason of v/hat followed later, it is talked of to this day. The arrangements were of the most sumptuous and extravagant description, princes of the blood and their wives were present, Cabinet Ministers jostled burly country squires upon the staircase, fair but haughty aristocrats rubbed shoulders with the daughters of American millionaires, whose money had been made goodness knows where or how ; half the celebrities of England nodded to the other half; but in all that dis- tinguished company there was no woman to eclipse Valerie in beauty, and, as another side of the picture, no man who could equal Pharos in ugliness. Much to my astonishment, the latter seemed to have no lack of acquaintances, and I noticed also that every one with whom he talked, though they paid a most servile at- tention to his remarks while he was with them, invari- ably heaved a sigh of relief when he took his departure. To me the evening was one of qualified enjoyment. Needless to say, I derived pleasure from Valerie's society, and found an exquisite delight in presenting her to my friends as my affianced wife ; but mixed up with it was a presentiment of coming danger that, do what I would, I could neither explain nor dispel. Times out of number Valerie rallied me upon my quietness, but it was in vain. Do what I would, I could
PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN 335
not shake it off. The pictures I had seen that evening in Pharos's company rose before my eyes continually ; and when later in the evening he came to my side and, with the same look upon his face that I had seen at the Renaissance, pointed out to me the hollowness of this ball also, and showed me the scheming mothers, the false wives and husbands, and the inner lives of many for whom up to that time I had entertained the greatest reverence, my cup was full — I could bear no more.
At two o'clock Valerie was tired, and we accordingly decided to leave. But I soon found that it was not to return home. Having placed my darling in her car- riage, Pharos directed the coachman to drive to Park Lane, declaring that we preferred to walk.
It was a beautiful night, cool and fresh, with a few clouds in the south-west, but brilliant starlight over- head. Leaving Carlton House Terrace, we passed into Waterloo Place, ascended it as far as Piccadilly, and then hailed a cab.
"Our evening is not completed yet," said Pharos. " I have still some places to show you. It is necessary that you should see them in order that you may appre- ciate what is to follow. The first will be a fancy dress ball at Covent Garden, where yet another side of Lon- don life is to be found."
If such a thing could possibly have had any effect, I should have objected ; but so completely did his will dominate mine, that I had no option but to consent to anything he proposed. We accordingly stepped into the cab and were driven off to the place indicated. From the sounds which issued from the great building
336 PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN
as we entered it, it was plain that the ball was proceed- ing with its accustomed vigour, a surmise on our part which proved to be correct when we reached the box Pharos had bespoken. A floor had been laid over the stalls and pit, and upon this upwards of fifteen hundred dancers, in every style of fancy dress the ingenuity of man could contrive, were slowly revolving to the music of a military band. It was a curious sight, and at any other time would have caused me considerable amuse- ment. Now, however, with the fiendish face of Pharos continually at my elbow, and his carping criticisms sounding without ceasing in my ear, mocking at the people below us, finding evil in everything, and hinting always at the doom which was hanging over London, it reminded me more of Dante's Inferno than anything else to which I could liken it. For upwards of an hour we remained spectators of it. Then, with a final sneer, Pharos gave the signal for departure.
" We have seen the finest club in Europe," he said, as we emerged into the cool air of Bow Street, " London's most artistic theatre, the House of. Commons, the most fashionable social event of the season, and a fancy dress ball at Covent Garden. We must now descend a grade lower, and, if you have no objection, we will go on in search of it on foot."
I had nothing to urge against this suggestion, so, turning into Long Acre, we passed through a number of squalid streets, with all of which Pharos seemed to be as intimately acquainted as he was in the West End, and finally approached the region of Seven Dials — that delectable neighbourhood bordered on the one side by Shaftesbury Avenue, and on the other by Drury Lane
PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN 337
Here, though it was by this time close upon three o'clock, no one seemed to have begun to think of bed. In one narrow alley through which we were compelled to pass at least thirty people were assembled, more than half of which number were intoxicated. A woman was screaming for assistance from a house across the way, and a couple of men were fighting at the farther end of an adjoining court. In this particu- lar locality the police seemed as extinct as the dodo. At any other time, and in any other company, I should have felt some doubt as to the wisdom of being in such a place at such an hour. But with my present com- panion beside me I felt no fear.
We had walked some distance before we reached the house Pharos desired to visit. From its outward ap- pearance it might have been a small drinking-shop in the daytime ; now, however, every window was closely shuttered, and not a ray of light showed through chink or cranny. Approaching the door, he knocked four times upon it, whereupon it was opened on a chain for a few inches. A face looked through the aperture thus created, and Pharos, moving a little closer, said some- thing in a whisper to it.
" Beg pardon, sir," said the woman, for a woman I soon discovered it was. " I didn't know as it was you, I'll undo the chain. Is the gentleman with you safe?"
" Quite safe," Pharos replied. " You need have no fear of him. He is my friend."
" In you come, then," said the woman to me, my character being thus vouched for, and accordingly in I stepped.
The passage was in total darkness, and when the
Y
338 PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN
door was shut behind us, and the bolts and bars had been replaced in the positions they had occupied before our entrance, I began to wonder into what sort of place my guide had led me.
Dirty as were the streets outside, the house in which we now stood more than equalled them. The home of Captain Wisemann in Hamburg, which I had up to that time thought the filthiest I had ever seen, was nothing to it. Taking the candle in her hand, the old woman led us along the passage towards another door. Before this she paused and rang a bell, the handle of which was cleverly concealed in the wood -work. Al- most instantly it was opened, and we entered a room the like of which I had never seen or dreamt of before. Its length was fully thirty feet, its width possibly fifteen. On the wall above the fireplace was a gas bracket, from the burner of which a large flame was issuing with a hissing noise. In the centre of the room was a table, and seated round it were at least twenty men and women, who, at the moment of our entering, were engaged upon a game the elements of which I did not understand. On seeing us the players sprang to their feet with one accord, and a scramble ensued for the money upon the table. A scene of general excite- ment followed, which might very well have ended in the gas being turned out and our finding ourselves upon the floor with knives between our ribs, had not the old woman who had introduced us called out that there was no need for alarm, and added, with an oath, what might in Pharos's case possibly have been true, but in mine was certainly not, that we had been there hundreds of times before, and were proper sort o' gents. Thereupon
"The players sprang to their feet."
Pharos the Egyptian.]
[Page 338
PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN 339
Pharos contributed a sovereign to be spent in liquid re- freshment, and when our healths had been drunk with a variety of toasts intended to be complimentary, our presence was forgotten, and the game once more pro- ceeded. One thing was self-evident : there was no lack of money among those present, and when a member of the company had not the wherewithal to continue the gamble, he in most cases produced a gold watch, a ring, or some other valuable from his pocket, and handed it to a burly ruffian at the head of the table, who ad- vanced him an amount upon it which nine cases out of ten failed to meet with his approval.
" Seeing you have not been here before," said Pharos, " I might explain that this is the most typical thieves' gambling hell in London. There is not a man or woman in this room at the present moment who is not a hardened criminal in every sense of the word. The fellow at the end narrowly escaped the gallows, the man on his right has but lately emerged fromi seven years' penal servitude for burglary, while the girl with the somewhat more refined face next him is his mistress. She obtains admittance to houses by making love to butlers and footmen, and in that way discovering where the valuables are kept, and how it will be possible for her paramour to enter later on. The three sitting to- gether next the banker are at the present moment badly wanted by the police, while the old woman who admitted us, and who was once not only a celebrated variety actress, but an exceedingly beautiful woman, is the mother of that sickly youth drinking gin beside the fireplace, who assisted in the murder of an old man in Shaftesbury Avenue a fortnight or so ago, and will
340 PHAROS THE EGYPTIAN
certainly be captured and brought within measurable distance of the gallows before many more weeks have passed over his head."
" But how do you know all this ? " I inquired, for the extent of his knowledge astonished me.
" Did I not tell you when I first made your acquaint- ance, three months ago, that there are very few things with which I have not some sort of an acquaintance ? " he replied. " Have you seen enough of this to satisfy you ? "
" More than enough," I answered truthfully.
"Then let us leave. It will soon be daylight, and there are still many places for us to visit before we return home."
We accordingly bade the occupants of the room good-night, and when we had been escorted to the door by the old woman who had admitted us left the house.
From the neighbourhood of Seven Dials Pharos carried me off to other equally sad and disreputable quarters of the city. We visited Salvation Army Shelters, the cheapest of cheap lodging-houses, doss- houses in comparison to which a workhouse would be a palace ; dark railway arches, where we found home- less men, women, and children endeavouring to snatch intervals of rest between the visits of patrolling police- men ; the public parks, where the grass was dotted with recumbent forms, and every seat was occupied ; and then, turning homewards, reached Park Lane just as the clocks were striking seven, as far as I was con- cerned sick to the heart, not only of the sorrow and the sin of London, but of the callous indifference to it displayed by Pharos.