figure that had poked a bow at him from the cab would come dragonish
into the drawing-room where he waited. Her he would charm with the
suavity of his manners; she would doff the dragon's skin; would say
(he had read the scene in novels), "You would like to see Miss So-and-
so?"

The girl would come in ....

With her appearance in his thoughts George's mind swung from coherent
reasoning into a delectable phantasy ....

A sudden thought swept the filmy clouds-landed him with a bump upon
hard rock. He was not supposed to know their address. How, to the
dragon, could he explain the venal trick by which he had acquired it?
Now he beheld a new picture. Himself in the drawing-room; to him the
dragon; her first words, "How did you know where we lived?"; his
miserable answer.

This was very unpleasant. As a red omnibus took him on towards St.
John's Wood he decided that the meeting must be otherwise effected.
The girl must sometimes go out. She had called herself a mother's-
help; it suggested children; and, if children, doubtless her task to
take them walking. Well, he would take up a post near to the house,
and wait--just wait.

And then there came a final thought that struck him cold and staring.
What if she did not live at the house?--was merely about to visit
there when the accident befell the cab?

It was a sorely agitated young man that stepped off the 'bus and