cottage. Fanny would not hear to
our living under a separate roof from that of my mother, whose
constant society she had come to regard as necessary to her happiness.

Philip now arranged to pursue the study of architecture in the office
of a practitioner of that art; and he gave his leisure hours to the
improving of his knowledge of London. He made acquaintances; passed
much time in the Pall Mall taverns; and was able to pilot me about the
town, and introduce me to many agreeable habitues of the
coffee-houses, as if he were the elder resident of London, and I were
the newcomer. And so we arrived at the Spring of 1786, and a momentous
event.

CHAPTER XIX.

_We Meet a Play-actress There._

It was Philip's custom, at this time, to attend first nights at the
playhouses, as well from a love of the theatre as from the possibility
that he might thus come upon Captain Falconer. He always desired my
company, which I was the readier to grant for that I should recognise
the captain in any assemblage, and could point him out to Phil, who
had never seen him. We took my mother and Fanny excepting when they
preferred to stay at home, which was the case on a certain evening in
this Spring of 1786, when we went to Drury Lane to witness the
reappearance of a Miss Warren who had been practising her art the
previous three years in the provinces. This long absence from London
had begun before my mother and I arrived there, and consequently
Philip and I had that evening the pleasurable anticipation of seeing
upon the stage a much-praised face that was quite new to us.

[Illustration: "IT WAS PHILIP'S CUSTOM, AT THIS TIME, TO ATTEND FIRST
NIGHTS AT THE PLAYHOUSES."]

There was the usual noisy throng of coaches, chairs, people afoot,
lackeys, chair-men, boys, and such, in front of the playhouse when we
arrived, and though we scanned all faces on whom the light fell, we
had our wonted disappointment regarding that of Captain Falconer. We
made our way to the pit, and passed the time till the bell and the
chorus "Hats off!" signalled the rising of the green curtain, in
watching the chattering assemblage that was every moment swelled from
the doors; but neither among the lace-ruffled bucks and macaronis who
chaffed with the painted and powdered ladies in the boxes, nor among
those dashing gentry who ogled the same towering-haired ladies from
the benches around us in the pit, did I perceive the elegant and easy
captain. We therefo