The stranger muttered something very like a curse; then, laughing slightly, he said, half aloud, as if in the habit of speaking his thoughts-- "The most extraordinary specimen of indignant virtue I ever encountered--why, she is as incorruptible as the hound, and just as fierce. So adieu, _ma belle_," tearing the note. "A Houri would not be worth the trouble such guardianship entails; besides the ridicule of appearing to the charges her eloquent duenna threatens." He thought a moment, turned, and walked slowly back to the main road, where a plainly appointed cab, with a horse of great beauty and value, and an irreproachable tiger awaited him. Kate thought nurse's movements unusually rapid, as they returned from Mrs. Storey's, but that considerate personage said not a syllable of her interview with the unknown, until that most confidential moment, when the stiffness of drawing-room manner and costume is exchanged for a _robe de chambre_, and Kate's long rich, brown tresses were submitted to Mrs. O'Toole, and the brush. "Sure, that dark browed divil was spyin' about whin I kem back fum Storey's." "What that dreadful man? who spoke?" "Yes, agra, an', Miss Kate, fur all I tould him, I thought him a pick-pocket--faith, I believe he's a gran' gintleman; I know be the look iv him; see now, if he is'nt a lord, I never seen one, an' they were as thick as parsley at Dungar. I was frightened to have the likes iv him ramblin' about here, so I jist spoke up bould, an' pretended to think he was a pick-pocket or the like, an' threatened him wid the polis, an' I think I settled him any how." "I have no doubt you acted quite right, dearest nurse, and I should like to have heard you giving him 'his tag,' as you would term it; but surely he will never take the trouble to come here again. I thought it was only a passing impertinence--perhaps he was really sorry, and wished to apologise--let us give him 'the benefit of a doubt;'" and so they dismissed the subject, which slumbered for many months before--but we must not anticipate. Not many days after this break in the routine of their lives, as Kate and the Colonel were one evening talking by the fire-light, of A----, and the Winters--the sound of approaching wheels, broke the stillness, which generally settled over Victoria-gardens, at the close of day. The sound drew nearer, and suddenly ceased at their house.