Then he looked up abruptly.
"Do you know where you are, Major ?" he said.
"God knows I don't," said the warrior, with fervour.
"You are standing," replied Northover, "in the office of the Adventure and Romance Agency, Limited." "And what's that ?" blankly inquired Brown.
The man of business leaned over the back of the chair, and fixed his dark eyes on the other's face.
"Major," said he, "did you ever, as you walked along the empty street upon some idle afternoon, feel the utter hunger for something to happen--something, in the splendid words of Walt Whitman: 'Something pernicious and dread; something far removed from a puny and pious life; something unproved; something in a trance; something loosed from its anchorage, and driving free.' Did you ever feel that ?" "Certainly not," said the Major shortly.
"Then I must explain with more elaboration," said Mr Northover, with a sigh.

"The Adventure and Romance Agency has been started to meet a great modern desire.

On every side, in conversation and in literature, we hear of the desire for a larger theatre of events for something to waylay us and lead us splendidly astray.

Now the man who feels this desire for a varied life pays a yearly or a quarterly sum to the Adventure and Romance Agency; in return, the Adventure and Romance Agency undertakes to surround him with startling and weird events.

As a man is leaving his front door, an excited sweep approaches him and assures him of a plot against his life; he gets into a cab, and is driven to an opium den; he receives a mysterious telegram or a dramatic visit, and is immediately in a vortex of incidents.