nswer: "I should imagine the poor lady would be best at home. Shall I
send out for a cab?" he asked.

"Yes," said Leander, gratefully; "bring a hansom. She'll come round
better in the open air;" for he had his doubts whether the statue could
be stowed inside a four-wheeler.

"I'll go myself," said the obliging man; "my assistant's out. Perhaps
the lady will sit down till the cab comes?"

"Thanks," said Leander; "but when she's like this, she's been
recommended to stand."

The chemist ran out bare-headed, to return presently with a cab and a
small train of interested observers. He offered the statue his arm to
the cab-door, an attention which was naturally ignored.

"We shall have to carry her there," said Leander.

"Why, bless me, sir," said the chemist, as he helped to lift her,
"she--she's surprisingly heavy!"

"Yes," gasped Leander, over her unconscious shoulder; "when she goes off
in one of these sleeps, she does sleep very heavy"--an explanation
which, if obscure, was accepted by the other as part of the general
strangeness of the case.

On the threshold the chemist stopped again. "I'd almost forgotten the
ring," he said.

"_I'll_ take that!" said Leander.

"Excuse me," was the objection, "but I was to give it back to the lady
herself. Had I not better put it on her finger, don't you think?"

"Are you a married man?" asked Leander, grimly.

"Yes," said the chemist.

"Then, if you'll take my advice, I wouldn't if I was you--if you're at
all anxious to keep out of trouble. You'd better give the ring to me,
and I give you my word of honour as a gentleman that I'll give it back
to her as soon as ever she's well enough to ask for it."

The other adopted the advice, and, amidst the sympathy of the
bystanders, they got the statue into the cab.

"Where to?" asked the man through the trap.

"Charing Cross," said Leander, at random; he ought the drive would give
him time for reflection.

"The 'orspital, eh?" said the cabman, and drove off, leaving the mild
chemist to stare open-mouthed on the pavement for a moment, and go back
to his shop with a growing sense that he had had a very unusual
experience.

Now that Leander was alone in the cab with the statue, whose attitude
required space, and cramped him uncomfortably, he wondered more and more
what he was to do with it. He could not afford to drive about London for
ever with her; he dared not take her home; and he was afraid of being
seen with her!