a glimpse of Miss Dolly returning from
Kensington.

The next morning I proclaimed my intention of going to Mr. Dix.

"Send for him," said the captain. "Gentlemen never seek their men of
affairs."

"No," I cried; "I can contain myself in this place no longer. I must be
moving."

"As you will, Richard," he replied, and giving me a queer, puzzled look
he settled himself between the Morning Post and the Chronicle.

As I passed the servants in the lower hall, I could not but remark an
altered treatment. My friend the chamberlain, more pompous than ever,
stood erect in the door with a stony stare, which melted the moment he
perceived a young gentleman who descended behind me. I heard him cry out
"A chaise for his Lordship!" at which command two of his assistants ran
out together. Suspicion had plainly gripped his soul overnight, and
this, added to mortified vanity at having been duped, was sufficient for
him to allow me to leave the inn unattended. Nor could I greatly blame
him, for you must know, my dears, that at that time London was filled
with adventurers of all types.

I felt a deal like an impostor, in truth, as I stepped into the street,
disdaining to inquire of any of the people of the Star and Garter where
an American agent might be found. The day was gray and cheerless, the
colour of my own spirits as I walked toward the east, knowing that the
city lay that way. But I soon found plenty to distract me.

To a lad such as I, bred in a quiet tho' prosperous colonial town, a walk
through London was a revelation. Here in the Pall Mall the day was not
yet begun, tho' for some scarce ended. I had not gone fifty paces from
the hotel before I came upon a stout gentleman with twelve hours of
claret inside him, brought out of a coffee-house and put with vast
difficulty into his chair; and I stopped to watch the men stagger off
with their load to St. James's Street. Next I met a squad of redcoated
guards going to the palace, and after them a grand coach and six rattled
over the Scotch granite, swaying to a degree that threatened to shake off
the footmen clinging behind. Within, a man with an eagle nose sat
impassive, and I set him down for one of the king's ministers.

Presently I came out into a wide space, which I knew to be Charing Cross
by the statue of Charles the First which stood in the centre of it, and
the throat of a street which was just in front of me must be the Strand.
Here all was life and bustle. On one