very wonderful age, since the time when you and I were young, ma'am."

"Yes, Sir; to be sure, Sir!" Mrs. Strouss replied, as she wiped her eyes
to speak of things; "but the most wonderfulest of all things, don't you
think, is the going of the time, Sir? No cabby can make it go faster
while he waits, or slower while he is a-driving, than the minds inside
of us manage it. Why, Sir, it wore only like yesterday that this here
tall, elegant, royal young lady was a-lying on my breast, and what a
hand she was to kick! And I said that her hair was sure to grow like
this. If I was to tell you only half what comes across me--"

"If you did, ma'am, the cabman would make his fortune, and I should lose
mine, which is more than I can afford. Erema, after dinner I shall look
you up. I know a good woman when I see her, Mrs. Strouss, which does not
happen every day. I can trust Miss Castlewood with you. Good-by, good-by
for the present."

It was the first time he had ever called me by my proper name, and that
made me all the more pleased with it.

"You see, Sir, why I were obliged to lock him in," cried the "good
woman," following to the door, to clear every blur from her virtues;
"for his own sake I done it, for I felt my cry a-coming, and to see
me cry--Lord bless you, the effect upon him is to call out for a
walking-stick and a pint of beer."

"All right, ma'am, all right!" the Major answered, in a tone which
appeared to me unfeeling. "Cabman, are you asleep there? Bring the
lady's bag this moment."

As the cab disappeared without my even knowing where to find that good
protector again in this vast maze of millions, I could not help letting
a little cold fear encroach on the warmth of my outburst. I had heard
so much in America of the dark, subtle places of London, and the wicked
things that happen all along the Thames, discovered or invented by great
writers of their own, that the neighborhood of the docks and the thought
of rats (to which I could never grow accustomed) made me look with a
flash perhaps of doubt at my new old friend.

"You are not sure of me, Miss Erema," said Mrs. Strouss, without taking
offense. "After all that has happened, who can blame it on you? But your
father was not so suspicious, miss. It might have been better for him if
he had--according, leastways, to my belief, which a team of wild horses
will never drag out."

"Oh, only let me hear you talk of that!" I exclaimed, forgetting all
other things.