Yes, oh, yes, of course.  He would do so.  He trembled with excessive nervousness, and but for the sharp, contemptuous directions given him by Miss Sparkes must have hopelessly bungled the undertaking.  Indeed, it was not easy to carry out in the confusion before a theatre when the audience is leaving, and bearing in mind the regulations concerning vehicles.  Their scheme was based upon the certainty that the carriage must proceed at a very moderate pace for some two or three hundred yards; within that limit or a very little beyond it—­at all events, before his breath was exhausted—­Christopher would certainly be able to hail a cab.

“Tell the cabby they’re friends of yours,” said Polly, “and you’re going to the same ’ouse.  You look quite respectable enough with your ’igh ’at.  That’s what I like about you; you always look respectable.”

“But—­but he will set me down right beside the people.”

“Well, what if he does, gooseberry?  Can’t you just pay him quietly?  They’ll think you’re for next door.”

“But—­but it may be a big house by itself somewhere.”

“Well, silly.  They’ll think it’s a mistake, that’s all.  What’s the matter in the dark?  You do as I tell you.  And when you’ve got to know the address—­you can take your time about that, of course—­come back along Shaftesbury Avenue and give three knocks at the door, and I’ll come down.”

It flashed through Christopher’s mind that he would be terribly late in getting home, but there was no help for it.  If he refused this undertaking, or failed to carry it out successfully, Polly would cast him off.  The gloom of a desperate mood fell upon him.  He had the feeling of a detective or of a criminal, he knew not which; the mystery of the affair was a hideous oppression.

Even the initial step, that of watching the trio of strangers into their brougham, was not without difficulty.  The pavement began to be crowded.  Clutching her slave by the arm, Polly managed. to hold a position whence she could see the people who descended the front steps of the theatre, and at length her energy was rewarded.  The ladies she could not have recognized, for they were muffled against the night air, but their male companion she “spotted”—­that was the word in her mind—­with certainty.

“There!  See those three?  That’s them,” she whispered excitedly.  “Off you go!”

And off he went, as if life depended upon it; his eyes on the brougham, his heart throbbing violently, moisture dropping from his forehead and making his collar limp.  The carriage disengaged itself, the pace quickened, he began to run, and collided with pedestrians who cursed him.  Now—­now or never—­a cab!

By good luck he plunged into a hansom wanting a fare.

“The carriage—­friends of mine—­that carriage!”

“Ketch ’em up?” asked the driver briskly.

“No—­same ’ouse—­follow!”