e reunited at some
reputable hour at Pratt's Hotel, Ralph remarked that the latter must
have a cab. She couldn't walk all the way to Jermyn Street.

"I suppose you mean it's improper for me to walk alone!" Henrietta
exclaimed. "Merciful powers, have I come to this?"

"There's not the slightest need of your walking alone," Mr. Bantling
gaily interposed. "I should be greatly pleased to go with you."

"I simply meant that you'd be late for dinner," Ralph returned. "Those
poor ladies may easily believe that we refuse, at the last, to spare
you."

"You had better have a hansom, Henrietta," said Isabel.

"I'll get you a hansom if you'll trust me," Mr. Bantling went on.

"We might walk a little till we meet one."

"I don't see why I shouldn't trust him, do you?" Henrietta enquired of
Isabel.

"I don't see what Mr. Bantling could do to you," Isabel obligingly
answered; "but, if you like, we'll walk with you till you find your
cab."

"Never mind; we'll go alone. Come on, Mr. Bantling, and take care you
get me a good one."

Mr. Bantling promised to do his best, and the two took their departure,
leaving the girl and her cousin together in the square, over which
a clear September twilight had now begun to gather. It was perfectly
still; the wide quadrangle of dusky houses showed lights in none of the
windows, where the shutters and blinds were closed; the pavements were
a vacant expanse, and, putting aside two small children from a
neighbouring slum, who, attracted by symptoms of abnormal animation
in the interior, poked their faces between the rusty rails of
the enclosure, the most vivid object within sight was the big red
pillar-post on the southeast corner.

"Henrietta will ask him to get into the cab and go with her to Jermyn
Street," Ralph observed. He always spoke of Miss Stackpole as Henrietta.

"Very possibly," said his companion.

"Or rather, no, she won't," he went on. "But Bantling will ask leave to
get in."

"Very likely again. I'm glad very they're such good friends."

"She has made a conquest. He thinks her a brilliant woman. It may go
far," said Ralph.

Isabel was briefly silent. "I call Henrietta a very brilliant woman, but
I don't think it will go far. They would never really know each other.
He has not the least idea what she really is, and she has no just
comprehension of Mr. Bantling."

"There's no more usual basis of union than a mutual misunderstanding.
But it ought not to be so difficul