he window, saw the word "Hotel" over a doorway, and was satisfied.
"Shall I take the child, ma'am?" said a man in black, and the child
was handed out. Nora was the first to follow, and she then perceived
that the door of the hotel was not open. Mrs. Trevelyan followed;
and then they looked round them,--and the child was gone. They heard
the rattle of another cab as it was carried away at a gallop round a
distant corner;--and then some inkling of what had happened came upon
them. The father had succeeded in getting possession of his child.

It was a narrow, dark street, very quiet, having about it a certain
air of poor respectability,--an obscure, noiseless street, without
even a sign of life. Some unfortunate one had endeavoured here to
keep an hotel;--but there was no hotel kept there now. There had
been much craft in selecting the place in which the child had been
taken from them. As they looked around them, perceiving the terrible
misfortune which had befallen them, there was not a human being near
them save the cabman, who was occupied in unchaining, or pretending
to unchain the heavy mass of luggage on the roof. The windows of
the house before which they were stopping, were closed, and Nora
perceived at once that the hotel was not inhabited. The cabman must
have perceived it also. As for the man who had taken the child, the
nurse could only say that he was dressed in black, like a waiter,
that he had a napkin under his arm, and no hat on his head. He had
taken the boy tenderly in his arms,--and then she had seen nothing
further. The first thing that Nora had seen, as she stood on the
pavement, was the other cab moving off rapidly.

Mrs. Trevelyan had staggered against the railings, and was soon
screaming in her wretchedness. Before long there was a small crowd
around them, comprising three or four women, a few boys, an old man
or two,--and a policeman. To the policeman Nora had soon told the
whole story, and the cabman was of course attacked. But the cabman
played his part very well. He declared that he had done just what
he had been told to do. Nora was indeed sure that she had heard her
uncle desire him to drive to Gregg's Hotel in Baker Street. The
cabman in answer to this, declared that he had not clearly heard the
old gentleman's directions; but that a man whom he had conceived to
be a servant, had very plainly told him to drive to Parker's Hotel,
Mowbray Street, Gower Street. "I comed ever so far out of my w