The officer stopped short at the question, and looked hard at Ada for some moments to assure himself that he was not, in his own phraseology, being “regularly done;” but there was something so very innocent and guileless in the face of Ada that he very reluctantly came to the conclusion that she really did not know where the Strand was, and from that moment he looked upon her as a natural phenomenon, and spoke to her with a curious kind of considerate voice, such as he would have addressed to a person not quite right in her mind.
“Why, the Strand,” he said, “runs from the Cross to the Bar, you see.”
“Does it?” said Ada.
“This here is Whitehall.”
“Whitehall? I have read of Whitehall. Cardinal Wolsey held great state here once.”
“Well, I never,” thought the officer, who had never heard of Cardinal Wolsey in his life. “She’s wandering in her mind, poor thing.”
“What building is that?” inquired Ada, as they came opposite to the Horse Guards.
“That ’ere is the Horse Guards, and leads into the Park.”
“St. James’s Park? I have been there,” said Ada. “That too is full of recollection.”
“I believe ye,” said the officer. “Don’t you know as Bill Floggs, who was called the ‘Nubbly Cove,’ robbed Lord Chief Justice Bones by Buckingham Gate?”