cabman, who made a good thing of it, and nodded
when told to drive away as soon as he had deposited his charges at their
door. Then Merton led Maitland upstairs and offered him a cigar.

'What do you think of it?' he asked.

'Common post-hypnotic suggestion by the governess,' said Maitland.

'I guessed as much, but can it really be worked like that? You are not
chaffing?'

'Simplest thing to work in the world,' said Maitland. 'A lot of
nonsense, however, that the public believes in can't be done. The woman
could not sit down in St. John's Wood, and "will" Tommy to come to her if
he was in the next room. At least she might "will" till she was black in
the face, and he would know nothing about it. But she can put him to
sleep, and make him say what he does not want to say, in answer to
questions, afterwards, when he is awake.'

'You're sure of it?'

'It is as certain as anything in the world up to a certain point.'

'The girl said something that the boy did not say, more gushing, about
his dead mother.'

'The hypnotised subject often draws a line somewhere.'

'The woman must be a fiend,' said Merton.

'Some of them are, now and then,' said the author of _Clinical
Psychology_.

* * * * *

Miss Blossom's cab, the driver much encouraged by Tommy, who conversed
with him through the trap in the roof, dashed up to the door of a house
close to Lord's. The horse was going fast, and nearly cannoned into
another cab-horse, also going fast, which was almost thrown on its
haunches by the driver. Inside the other hansom was a tall man with a
pale face under the tan, who was nervously gnawing his moustache. Miss
Blossom saw him, Tommy saw him, and cried 'Father!' Half-hidden behind a
blind of the house Miss Blossom beheld a woman's face, expectant. Clearly
she was Miss Limmer. All the while that they were driving Miss Blossom's
wits had been at work to construct a story to account for the absence and
return of the children. Now, by a flash of invention, she called to her
cabman, 'Drive on--fast!' Major Apsley saw his lost children with their
arms round the neck of a wonderfully pretty girl; the pretty girl waved
her parasol to him with a smile, beckoning forwards; the children waved
their arms, calling out 'A race! a race!'

What could a puzzled parent do but bid his cabman follow like the wind?
Miss Blossom's cab flew past Lord's, dived into Regent's Park, leading by
two lengths; reached the Zoological G