“I can adopt but one plan of operation,” said Ada, “and that is to go from place to place where Albert has lived, and at each make what inquiries may suggest themselves on the moment. I think I can find my way, if put in the neighbourhood, to the first lodging Jacob Gray brought me to in London; at least, the first I have any recollection of. It stood, as I have often wearied you with telling, in a bye-street, at the back of another, the name of a which well recollect was Swallow-street.”
“That we shall have no difficulty in finding,” said Lady Hartleton. “Swallow-street is a well-known thoroughfare; although, I believe, none of the most select. I think I can act as your guide there; but should I be at fault, those who are following us, as our guards, can no doubt set us right.”
Many were the glances of admiration cast upon Ada, as she and Lady Hartleton walked along Whitehall to Charing-cross, and by the time they reached the corner of the Strand, several idle loungers had enlisted themselves in their train, with a determination to see where they could possibly be going.
“We must cross here,” said Lady Hartleton, “and pass those mean rows of buildings, which are called the Royal Mews, and then we shall, if I mistake not, be in the immediate neighbourhood of the street you mention.”
As Lady Hartleton spoke, she felt Ada clutch her arm very tightly, and turning to see what occasioned it, she saw one of the puppies of the day with his grinning face, within a few inches of Ada’s ear, muttering some of the ineffable nonsense common to such animals, when they pitch upon an apparently unprotected female as the object of their insulting address.
A flash of indignation came from the eyes of Lady Hartleton; but before she could speak, she saw the fopling flung into the roadway, with a violence that sent him half across it; and Sir Francis Hartleton himself, who had followed after the officers, took Ada’s arm within his, saying,—
“There now. If you had been quite alone, Ada, you would have been pestered, probably, for an hour, by that ape in man’s clothes.”
Ada turned to speak to the magistrate, when a cry of pleasure escaped her.
On the opposite side of the way was Albert Seyton, walking leisurely towards the Horse-guards.
Sir Francis Hartleton was just in time to stop her from rushing across the roadway, and detaining her by the arm, said,—