The observant surmised a force
more or less at odds with the facts of life. Shrewd men of commerce
at once perceived his qualities, but reserved their judgment as to
his chances he was not, in any case, altogether of their world,
however well he might have studied its principles and inured himself
to its practice.
He took rooms in Guildford Street. Indifferent to locality, asking
nothing more than decency in his immediate surroundings, he fell by
accident on the better kind of lodging-house, and was at once what
is called comfortable; his landlady behaved to him with a peculiar
respectfulness, often noticeable in the uneducated who had relations
with Otway, and explained perhaps by his quiet air of authority. To
those who served him, no man was more considerate, but he never
became familiar with them; without a trace of pretentiousness in his
demeanour, he was viewed by such persons as one sensibly above them,
with some solid right to rule.
In the selection of his place of business, he of course exercised
more care, but here, too, luck favoured him. A Russian merchant
moving into more spacious quarters ceded to him a small office in
Fenchurch Street, with furniture which he purchased at a very
reasonable price. To begin with, he hired only a lad; it would be
seen in a month or so whether he had need of more assistance. If
business grew, he was ready to take upon himself a double share, for
the greater his occupation the less his time for brooding.
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