'I thought,' said he, in the tone of conversation, 'that I had
indistinctly perceived you leaving a villa in the company of two
gentlemen.'

'Oh!' she said, 'you need not fear to wound me by the truth. You
saw me flee from a common lodging-house, and my companions were not
gentlemen. In such a case, the best of compliments is to be
frank.'

'I thought,' resumed Challoner, encouraged as much as he was
surprised by the spirit of her reply, 'to have perceived, besides,
a certain odour. A noise, too--I do not know to what I should
compare it--'

'Silence!' she cried. 'You do not know the danger you invoke.
Wait, only wait; and as soon as we have left those streets, and got
beyond the reach of listeners, all shall be explained. Meanwhile,
avoid the topic. What a sight is this sleeping city!' she
exclaimed; and then, with a most thrilling voice, '"Dear God," she
quoted, "the very houses seem asleep, and all that mighty heart is
lying still."'

'I perceive, madam,' said he, 'you are a reader.'

'I am more than that,' she answered, with a sigh. 'I am a girl
condemned to thoughts beyond her age; and so untoward is my fate,
that this walk upon the arm of a stranger is like an interlude of
peace.'

They had come by this time to the neighbourhood of the Victoria