“I hope,” he said, “you will allow me to drive you home. I have brought my phaeton, as you see, in order to do so.”

“I thank your Lordship, but I have someone waiting for me.”

This was certainly not the answer the Earl had expected.

He glanced round, finding that there was no other vehicle in the street except a passing dray and only a few pedestrians.

“I think you are mistaken,” he said, “and I can only repeat my invitation. I am very anxious, Miss Carver, to drive you home in style.”

“It is not an invitation that I can accept, my Lord,” Thalia said and the Earl thought that there was a deliberately repressive note in her voice.

She stepped to one side of him and, before he could make any effort to stop her, she was walking quickly down the street. He stared after her, not quite certain what he should do.

Then, as he watched, he saw the figure of an elderly woman dressed in black move towards her.

They stopped, spoke for a moment, and then hurried around the corner.

The Earl climbed back into his phaeton. He drove in the direction that Thalia had gone and was just in time to see her turning another corner into Hay Hill.

Again he followed, but this time he encountered a coach-and-four coming down Dover Street and, by the time he had allowed it to precede him, he merely had a glimpse of Thalia’s grey gown disappearing into Lansdowne Passage.

This at any rate told him the direction she was going in because Lansdowne Passage was a short cut to Curzon Street.

By the time the Earl had driven through Berkeley Square passing Lansdowne House and into Curzon Street, Thalia and her elderly companion were far ahead.

However skilfully he drove, the Earl was brought to the irritating conclusion that he had been outwitted when he saw Thalia turn under the archway that led into Shepherd’s Market.

Here it was impossible for his phaeton to follow her, but at least he told himself, as he drove on up Curzon Street, he knew whereabouts she lived.

He had almost reached the top of the street before he came to a decision.

“Get down, Henry,” he said, to his groom. “Go to Shepherd’s Market and find out all you can about Miss Carver. The place is so small that I cannot believe that there will not be someone to give you her address. Discover if she lives alone or has a family. I want every possible detail, but make your enquiries with discretion. I know I can trust you.”

“I’ll be as quick as I can, my Lord,” Henry replied.