His arm encircled her body, and for a moment now and then he carried
rather than led her. They were safe at length, in the right part of
Oxford Street, and moving with the stream.

'I couldn't find your brother,' Crewe had leisure to say; 'and I
didn't see Fanny French. There weren't many people about just then,
either. They must have gone off before I came.'

'Yes, they must. It doesn't matter.'

'You have some life in you.' He gazed at her admiringly. 'You're
worth half a million of the girls that squeak and wobble when
there's a bit of rough play going on.'

'I hope so. Did you set me down as one of that kind?'

Nancy found that her tongue had achieved a liberty suitable to the
occasion. She spoke without forethought, and found pleasure in her
boldness.

'Not I,' Crewe answered. 'But I never had a chance before now of
telling you what I thought.'

Some one in front of them ignited a Bengal light and threw it into
the air; the flame flashed across Nancy's features, and fell upon
the hat of a man near her.

'How do you mean to get home?' asked Crewe presently. Nancy
explained that all her party were to meet on the other side of the
river.