had
roused myself up, to my consternation, I discovered that my pillow was
nowhere to be found. Many of the passengers had already gone their
ways, and those who remained knew nothing about me or my packet.
Indeed, I only drew suspicions on myself, as my paucity of baggage and
the pretensions of my dress were decidedly at variance. The gentleman
in top-boots and with the brown paper parcel seemed ridiculous enough.
Seeing how ineffectual noise was, I held my peace, now that I had
nothing else to hold; got on the outside of the first coach for London;
and, by ten at night, I found myself in the coffee-room of the White
Horse, in Fetter Lane.

The next morning, when I arose, it was my birthday, the 14th of
February; and I stood at mine inn, a being perfectly isolated. But I
was not idle; on descending into the coffee-room, I procured the Court
Guide; but my most anxious scrutiny could discover no such person among
the baronets as Sir Reginald Rattlin. Paying my bill, I next went to
Somerset House, and drew my pay; I then repaired to the aristocratic
mansion of Lord Whiffledale, in Grosvenor Square. "Not at home," and
"in the country for some time," were the surly answers of the indolent
porter.

It was a day of disappointments. The lawyer who cashed my bills was
civil and constrained. To all my entreaties first, and to my leading
questions afterwards, he gave me cold and evasive answers. He told me
he had received no further instructions concerning me; reiterated his
injunctions that I should not endanger the present protection that I
enjoyed, by endeavouring to explore what it was the intention of those
on whom I depended to keep concealed; and he finally wished me a good
morning, and was almost on the point of handing me out of his office.

But I would not be so repelled. I became impassioned and loud; nor
would I depart until he assured me, on his honour, that he knew almost
as little of the secret as myself, and that he was only the agent of an
agent, never having yet had any communication with the principal, whose
name, even, he assured me, he did not know.

I had now nearly exhausted the day. The intermingling mists of the
season and the heavy smoke of the town were now shrouding the streets in
a dense obscurity. There were no gas lights then. Profoundly ignorant
of the intricacy of the streets of the metropolis, I was completely at
the mercy of the hackney-coachmen, and they made me buy it extremely