Of anything of the sort she herself was totally unconscious. George saw at once that she, not the policeman, was in command. She gave him directions, as they approached the cab, in a quick, imperative voice which left no room for hesitation. "The driver is drunk," he heard her say; "who will drive?" "One of us will drive, ma'am." "What--the other man? Ask him to take the reins at once, please, before I get in. The horse is fresh, and might start. That's right. Now, when I say the word, give me the child." She settled herself in the cab. George saw the policeman somewhat embarrassed, for a moment, with his burden. He came forward to his help, and between them they handed in the child, placing her carefully on her protector's knee. Then, standing at the open door of the cab, George raised his hat. "Can I be of any further assistance to you, Lady Maxwell? I saw you just now at the concert." She turned in some astonishment as she heard her name, and looked at the speaker. Then, very quickly, she seemed to understand. "I don't know," she said, pondering. "Yes! you could help me. I am going to take the child to hospital. But there is this other girl. Could you take her home--she is very much upset? No!--first, could you bring her after me to St. George's? She wants to see where we put her sister." "I will call another cab, and be there as soon as you." "Thank you. Just let me speak to the sister a moment, please." He put the weeping girl forward, and Lady Maxwell bent across the burden on her knee to say a few words to her--soft, quick words in another voice. The girl understood, her face cleared a little, and she let Tressady take charge of her. One of the policemen mounted the box of the hansom, amid the "chaff" of the crowd, and the cab started. A few hats were raised in George's neighbourhood, and there was something of a cheer. "I tell yer," said a voice, "I knowed her fust sight--seed her picture lots o' times in the papers, and in the winders too. My word, ain't she good-lookin! And did yer see all them diamonds?" "Come along!" said George, impatiently, hurrying his charge into the four-wheeler the other policeman had just stopped for them. In a few more seconds he, the girl, and the policeman were pursuing Lady Maxwell's hansom at the best speed of an indifferent horse. George tried to say a few consoling things to his neighbour; and the girl, reassured by his kind manner, found her tongue, and began to chatter in a tearful voice about the how and when of the accident: about the elder sister in a lodging in Crawford Street, Tottenham Court Road, whom she and the little one had been visiting; the grandmother in Westminster with whom they lived; poor Lizzie's place in a laundry, which now she must lose; how the lady had begged handkerchiefs and umbrellas from the crowd to tie up Lizzie's leg with--and so on through a number of other details incoherent or plaintive.