your talk. Come now; weren't you glad to see me?"

"I was--very glad indeed. But by what magic did you so suddenly
subdue that man? And was it necessary to sully your hands by
throttling him?"

"It was a satisfaction to me; and it served him right."

"Surely a very poor satisfaction! Did you notice that some one in
the crowd called out your name, and that it seemed to frighten the
man terribly?"

"Indeed? Odd, wasn't it? But you were saying that you thought I
dropped from the sky. Why, I had been following you for five minutes
before! What do you think of that? If I may take the liberty of
asking, how did you come to be walking round Soho at such an hour
with a little ragged boy?"

Lydia explained. When she finished, it was nearly dark, and they had
reached Oxford Street, where, like Lucian in Regent's Park that
afternoon, she became conscious that her companion was an object of
curiosity to many of the young men who were lounging in that
thoroughfare.

"Alice will think that I am lost," she said, making a signal to a
cabman. "Good-bye; and many thanks. I am always at home on Fridays,
and shall be very happy to see you."

She handed him a card. He took it, read it, looked at the back to
see if there was anything written there, and then said, dubiously,