The landlady broke ground by faintly demanding to what remarkable event she might attribute the honour of this most unlooked-for visit; whereupon Mr. Bantom gracefully resigned to X 94 the privilege of speaking first, a privilege which was immediately accepted, and used in directing a series of sharp interrogatories addressed to Mr. Bantom, every one of which he replied to with skilful evasion. The officer, at length declared himself extremely dissatisfied with the result of his examination, and requested Mr. Bantom to accompany him to the station-house, in order that he might give more satisfactory explanations concerning himself to the inspector on duty. To this proposition, Mr. Bantom emphatically declined to accede; he declared it a violation of the liberty of the subject, to which he would not submit; and as X 94 endeavoured to enforce his suggestion, a collision ensued. Lotte’s landlady, when she saw the policeman’s hand upon Bantom’s collar, and Bantom’s hand upon the policeman’s belt, and the two commence to revolve with frightful rapidity, thought it prudent to take no further part in the interview. She therefore retired, closed her door, bolted it, and put the chain up. She ascended to the room above, and peeped over a blind to ascertain what followed her departure. She heard a great shuffling of feet upon the pavement, and the roar of many voices. There were frequent heavy bumps at the street door, as of human bodies swung violently against it, the knocker rapped at these times, untouched by mortal hand; then the uproar increased, grew, swelled into a mighty sound, and at last she saw the heels of Mr. Bantom quivering in the air, waving above the shoulders of five policemen, who were bearing him off in triumph to that audience with the inspector at the station-house, suggested in the first instance by X 94, but which Bantom had so obstinately refused to attend. All this while Lotte was on her way to Eaton Square, She paused occasionally to look in at the shops--the drapers’ and the milliners’ commanding the largest portion of her attention; though at the time Mr. Bantom was doing desperate battle against such unequal odds, she was steadfastly regarding a large variety of pipes in a tobacconist’s window, with the intention of one day selecting one, and making him a present of it. She went on and reached Hyde Park. She struck across towards the Serpentine. The sky was blue, clear, and serene; the air was balmy, and the soft turf green and smooth. The throngs moving to and fro, in carriages and on foot, dressed in all the colours of the rainbow, made the scene busy and lively, and she tripped on, full of joyful tenderness and freshened spirits, light and free as a bird.