normal condition, which fortunately was not the case.

Within half an hour the two stole out of the house, and on reaching the
Ludgate Hill end of the Old Bailey turned eastwards. Their destination
was the Stocks Market occupying the site where the present Mansion House
stands. The Stocks Market was the principal market in London at that
time, Fleet Market was not in existence and Covent Garden, then mainly a
fashionable residential quarter, was only in its infancy as to the sale
of fruit and vegetables.

But the Stocks Market eastwards of St. Paul's was not in the direction
of Twickenham, or Twitenham as it was then called. Why then were Lavinia
and Hannah wending their way thither?

It was in this wise. Hannah was quick witted and fertile in resources.
Moreover she was a native of Mortlake, then surrounded by fruit growing
market gardens and especially celebrated for its plums, the fame of
which for flavour and colour and size has not quite died out in the
present day. Hannah had had her sweethearting days along by the
riverside and in pleasant strolls on Sheen Common, and not a few of her
swains cherished tender recollections of her fascinating coquetry. She
knew very well she would find some old admirer at the Stocks Market who
for auld lang syne would willingly give Lavinia a seat in his covered
cart returning to Mortlake with empty baskets. And Mortlake of course,
is no very long distance from Twickenham.

So it came about. The clock of St. Christopher le Stocks struck five as
the two young women entered the market. The Bank of England as we now
know it did not then exist. St. Christopher's, hemmed in by houses,
occupied the site of the future edifice, as much in appearance like a