They had arrived late in the evening, and, knowing nothing of inns, had got into a cab and proceeded to Roderick's lodging.

At the door, poor Mrs.Hudson's frightened anxiety had overcome her, and she had sat quaking and crying in the vehicle, too weak to move.

Miss Garland had bravely gone in, groped her way up the dusky staircase, reached Roderick's door, and, with the assistance of such acquaintance with the Italian tongue as she had culled from a phrase-book during the calmer hours of the voyage, had learned from the old woman who had her cousin's household economy in charge that he was in the best of health and spirits, and had gone forth a few hours before with his hat on his ear, per divertirsi.
These things Rowland learned during a visit he paid the two ladies the evening after their arrival.

Mrs.Hudson spoke of them at great length and with an air of clinging confidence in Rowland which told him how faithfully time had served him, in her imagination.

But her fright was over, though she was still catching her breath a little, like a person dragged ashore out of waters uncomfortably deep.