about the
hour of 8 a.m.
Doctor Julian Humphreys was spoken of by those who believed that they knew him best as an eccentric ; because , being a physician and surgeon of quite unusual ability , he chose -- possessing a small independence amounting to a bare three hundred pounds per annum -- to establish himself in the East-End of London , and there devote himself with zeal and enthusiasm to the amelioration of the sufferings of the very poor , instead of capitalising his income and setting up in Harley Street , where his exceptional qualifications would speedily and inevitably have brought him a handsome fortune . An income of three hundred pounds per annum -- out of which one has to feed , clothe , and house oneself -- does not afford very much scope for the practice of philanthropy , as Dr Humphreys very well knew ; his establishment , therefore , was of very modest dimensions , consisting merely of three rooms with the usual domestic offices , one room -- the front and largest one -- being fitted up as surgery , dispensary , and consulting room , while , of the other two , one served as a sleeping apartment for himself and his pupil , Mr Richard Maitland , the third being sacred to Polly Nevis , a sturdy and willing , but somewhat untidy person , who discharged the united functions of parlour maid , housemaid , chamber maid , cook , and scullery maid to the establishment . The large red lamp which shone over Dr Humphreys ' door at night was the one and only picturesque feature of Paradise Street -- surely so named by an individual of singularly caustic and sardonic humour , for anything less suggestive of the delights of Paradise than the squalid and malodorous street so named it would indeed be difficult to conceive -- and in the course of the four years during which it had been in position that lamp had become a familiar object to every man , woman , and child within a radius of at least a mile ; for the Doctor 's fame had soon spread , and his clientele comprised practically everybody within that radius . The apparently insignificant event that initiated the extraordinary series of adventures , of which this is the narrative , occurred about the hour of 8 a.m. on a certain day of September in the year of our Lord 19 -- ; and it consisted in the delivery by the postman of a letter addressed to Mr Richard Maitland , care of Dr J. Humphreys , 19 Paradise Street , Whitechapel , E . The letter was addressed in the well - known handwriting of Dick 's mother ; but the recipient did not immediately open it , for he was at the moment engaged in assisting the Doctor to dress and bind up the wounds of Mrs William Taylor , whose husband , having returned home furiously drunk upon the closing of the public houses on the previous night , had proceeded to vent his spleen upon his long-suffering wife , because , having no money and nothing that she could pawn , she had failed to have a hot supper ready for him upon his arrival . When , however , Mrs Taylor , scarcely recognisable because of the voluminous bandages that swathed her head and face , and carrying with her a powerful odour of iodoform , was bowed out of the surgery by Dr Humphreys , with a reminder -- in reply to a murmur that she had no money just then -- that she was one of his free patients , and a message from the Doctor to Mr William Taylor , which the poor woman had not the remotest intention to deliver , Dick drew his mother 's letter from his pocket and opened it . As he mastered its contents he went white to the lips , as well he might ; for this is what he read : The Cedars , 14 South Hill , Sydenham .