e
heard the cry, "All friends on shore!" Tardif put his lips to my hand,
and left me. I was indeed alone.

CHAPTER THE THIRD.

IN LONDON LODGINGS.

Once more I found myself in London, a city so strange to me that I did
not know the name of any street in it. I had more acquaintance with
almost every great city on the Continent. Fortunately, Tardif had given
me the address of a boarding-house, or rather a small family hotel,
where he had stayed two or three times, and I drove there at once. It
was in a quiet back street, within sound of St. Paul's clock. The hour
was so late, nearly midnight, that I was looked upon with suspicion, as
a young woman travelling alone, and with little luggage. It was only
when I mentioned Tardif, whose island bearing had made him noticeable
among the stream of strangers passing through the house, that the
mistress of the place consented to take me in.

This was my first difficulty, but not the last. By the advice of the
mistress of the boarding-house, I went to several governess agencies,
which were advertising for teachers in the daily papers. At most of
these they would not even enter my name, as soon as I confessed my
inability to give one or two references to persons who would vouch for
my general character, and my qualifications. This was a fatal
impediment, and one that had never occurred to me; yet the request was a
reasonable one, even essential. What could be more suspicious than a
girl of my age without a friend to give a guarantee of her
respectability? There seemed no hope whatever of my entering into the
ill-paid ranks of governesses.

When a fortnight had passed with no opening for me, I felt it necessary
to leave the boarding-house which had been my temporary home. I must
economize my funds, for I did not know how long I must make them hold
out. Wandering about the least fashionable suburbs, where lodgings would
cost least, I found a bedroom in the third story of a house in a
tolerably respectable street. The rent was six shillings a week, to be
paid in advance. In this place, I entered upon a new phase of life, so
different from that in Sark that, in the delusions which solitude often
brings, I could not always believe myself the same person.

A dreamy, solitary, gloomy life; shut in upon myself, with no outlet for
association with my fellow creatures. My window opened upon a back-yard,
with a row of half-built houses standing opposite to it. These houses
had b