White Face by Edgar Wallace

That he had no other friends was good and sufficient reason why Mr. Elk should drop in at odd minutes to discuss with Dr. Marford the criminal tendencies and depravities of that section of the British Empire which lies between the northern end of Victoria Dock Road and the smelly drabness of Silvertown.

Elk called on the evening Janice Harman took her farewell, and found Dr. Marford's melancholy eyes fixed upon the dreary pageant of Endley Street. They were working overtime in the shipyard, which was almost opposite his surgery, and the din of mechanical riveters would go on during the night. Dr. Marford was so accustomed to this noise that it was hardly noticeable. The sound of drunken songsters, the pandemonium which accompanied amateur pugilism, the shrill din of children playing in the streets--hereabouts they played till midnight--the rumbling of heavy lorries on the way to the Eastern Trading Company's yard which went on day and night never disturbed his sleep.