PORTSEA PLACE, CONNAUGHT SQUARE, is composed of very small houses, most of which are let out in apartments. It was to one of these that Mrs. Baines drove on her arrival in town. Her two canvas-covered boxes, carefully corded, were on the top of the cab, her many small packages piled up inside. Mr. Wimple was not with her. He had left her at Waterloo, but it had been arranged that he was to see her later on in Portsea Place, and that if she failed to take rooms there, she was to leave a message where she was to be found. "Well, Mrs. Hooper," she said to the landlady, smilingly, but with the condescending air of a patroness, "you see I have not forgotten you, and if your rooms are still at liberty I should like to inspect them again."