He betook himself, thereupon, to the rural privacy of the square,

where, being a lad of a kind heart, he had made himself a circle of

acquaintances among its shy frequenters, the half-domestic cats and

the visitors that hung before the windows of the Children's

Hospital. There he walked, considering the depth of his demerit

and the height of the adored one's super-excellence; now lighting

upon earth to say a pleasant word to the brother of some infant

invalid; now, with a great heave of breath, remembering the queen

of women, and the sunshine of his life.

What was he to do? Teresa, he had observed, was in the habit of

leaving the house towards afternoon: she might, perchance, run

danger from some Cuban emissary, when the presence of a friend

might turn the balance in her favour: how, then, if he should

follow her? To offer his company would seem like an intrusion; to

dog her openly were a manifest impertinence; he saw himself reduced

to a more stealthy part, which, though in some ways distasteful to

his mind, he did not doubt that he could practise with the skill of

a detective.

The next day he proceeded to put his plan in action. At the corner

of Tottenham Court Road, however, the Senorita suddenly turned

back, and met him face to face, with every mark of pleasure and

surprise.

'Ah, Senor, I am sometimes fortunate!' she cried. 'I was looking

for a messenger;' and with the sweetest of smiles, she despatched

him to the East End of London, to an address which he was unable to

find. This was a bitter pill to the knight-errant; but when he

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