fered his arm, and led the way round the corner of the
crescent, across a square, and into a by-street, which was rendered
exceptionally lively by the presence of the local cab-stand. Here he
stopped, and asked jocosely whether Mr. Armadale saw his way now,
or whether it would be necessary to test his patience by making an
explanation.

"See my way?" repeated Allan, in bewilderment. "I see nothing but a
cab-stand."

Pedgift Junior smiled compassionately, and entered on his explanation.
It was a lodging-house at Kingsdown Crescent, he begged to state to
begin with. He had insisted on seeing the landlady. A very nice person,
with all the remains of having been a fine girl about fifty years ago;
quite in Pedgift's style--if he had only been alive at the beginning of
the present century--quite in Pedgift's style. But perhaps Mr. Armadale
would prefer hearing about Mrs. Mandeville? Unfortunately, there was
nothing to tell. There had been no quarreling, and not a farthing
left unpaid: the lodger had gone, and there wasn't an explanatory
circumstance to lay hold of anywhere. It was either Mrs. Mandeville's
way to vanish, or there was something under the rose, quite
undiscoverable so far. Pedgift had got the date on which she left, and
the time of day at which she left, and the means by which she left.
The means might help to trace her. She had gone away in a cab which the
servant had fetched from the nearest stand. The stand was now before
their eyes; and the waterman was the first person to apply to--going to
the waterman for information being clearly (if Mr. Armadale would excuse
the joke) going to the fountain-head. Treating the subject in this airy
manner, and telling Allan that he would be back in a moment,
Pedgift Junior sauntered down the street, and beckoned the waterman
confidentially into the nearest public-house.

In a little while the two re-appeared, the waterman taking Pedgift in
succession to the first, third, fourth, and sixth of the cabmen whose
vehicles were on the stand. The longest conference was held with the
sixth man; and it ended in the sudden approach of the sixth cab to the
part of the street where Allan was waiting.

"Get in, sir," said Pedgift, opening the door; "I've found the man. He
remembers the lady; and, though he has forgotten the name of the street,
he believes he can find the place he drove her to when he once gets back
into the neighborhood. I am charmed to inform you, Mr. Armadale, th