erhaps
there'll be another sovereign before we get to bed to-night."

I pocketed the money--you don't find many drivers who are long off the
fourth speed in that line, and Lal Britten is no exception. As for the
gentleman, he did seem a merry fellow, and his air was that of a Duke
all over--the kind of man who says "Do it," and finds you there every
time. We were round at the King's Road, Chelsea, perhaps a quarter of
an hour after he had spoken, and there we stopped at the door of a lot
of studios, which I have been told since are where some of the great
painters of the country keep their pictures. Here my friend was gone
perhaps twenty minutes, and when next I saw him he had three flash-up
ladies with him, and every one as classy as he was.

"Relations of mine," says he, as he pushes 'em into the landaulette,
and closes the door himself. "Now you may drive to Portman Square just
as fast as you please, for I'm an early bird myself, and don't approve
of late hours."

Well, I stared, be sure of it, though staring didn't fit that riddle,
not by a long way. My mistress had lent her landaulette to a stranger;
but I felt sure that she wouldn't have liked this sort of thing--and
yet, remember, the gentleman had told me to drive to Portman Square, so
there could not be much the matter, after all.

As for the ladies, it wasn't for me to quarrel with them. They were
all very well dressed, and behaved themselves perfectly. I came to the
conclusion that I was dealing with some rich man who had a bee in his
bonnet, and, my curiosity getting the better of me, I drove away to
Portman Square without as much as a word.

Now, this would have been some time after twelve o'clock. It was, I
think, a quarter to one when we turned into Portman Square, and he
began to work the signal on the driver's seat which tells you whether
you are to go to the right or the left, slow or easy, out or home
again. All sorts of contradictory orders baffling me, we drew up at
last before a big house on the Oxford Street side, and this, to my
astonishment, had a "To Let" board in the window, and another at the
pillar of the front door. What was even more astonishing was the fact
that this empty house--for I saw at a glance it was that--was just
lighted up from cellar to attic, while there was as many as three
furniture vans drawn up against the pavement, and sending in their
contents as fast as a dozen men could carry them. All this, mind you,