Now it happened one night that Lady Cicely Treherne and a friend were at a concert in Hanover Square. The other lady felt rather faint, and Lady Cicely offered to take her home. The carriages had not yet arrived, and Miss Macnamara said to walk a few steps would do her good: a smart cabman saw them from a distance and drove up, and touching his hat said, “Cab, ladies?” It seemed a very superior cab, and Miss Macnamara said “Yes” directly. The cabman bustled down and opened the door; Miss Macnamara got in first, then Lady Cicely; her eye fell on the cabman's face, which was lighted full by a street-lamp, and it was Christopher Staines! He started and winced; but the woman of the world never moved a muscle. “Where to?” said Staines, averting his head. She told him where, and when they got out, said, “I'll send it you by the servant.” A flunkey soon after appeared with half-a-crown, and the amateur coachman drove away. He said to himself, “Come, my mustache is a better disguise than I thought.” Next day, and the day after, he asked Rosa, with affected carelessness, had she heard anything of Lady Cicely. “No, dear; but I dare say she will call this afternoon: it is her day.” She did call at last, and after a few words with Rosa, became a little restless, and asked if she might consult Dr. Staines. “Certainly, dear. Come to his studio.” “No; might I see him here?” “Certainly.” She rang the bell, and told the servant to ask Dr. Staines if he would be kind enough to step into the drawing-room. Dr. Staines came in, and bowed to Lady Cicely, and eyed her a little uncomfortably. She began, however, in a way that put him quite at his ease. “You remember the advice you gave us about my little cousin Tadcastah.” “Perfectly: his life is very precarious; he is bilious, consumptive, and, if not watched, will be epileptical; and he has a fond, weak mother, who will let him kill himself.” “Exactly: and you wecommended a sea voyage, with a medical attendant to watch his diet, and contwol his habits. Well, she took other advice, and the youth is worse; so now she is fwightened, and a month ago she asked me to pwopose to you to sail about with Tadcastah; and she offered me a thousand pounds a year. I put on my stiff look, and said, 'Countess, with every desiah to oblige you, I must decline to cawwy that offah to a man of genius, learning, and weputation, who has the ball at his feet in London.'” “Lord forgive you, Lady Cicely.” “Lord bless her for standing up for my Christie.”