Stephen was anxious to return to his duties in Harley-street, but he feared that if he left them alone together then the gentleman might start throwing something more substantial than paper at the magician. “Shall you and I walk to Harley-street together, sir?” he asked. “Then you may tell me how your noble actions have moulded London and made it glorious. That is always so very entertaining. I never grow tired of hearing about it.”

“Gladly, Stephen! Gladly!”

“Is it far, sir?”

“Is what far, Stephen?”

“Harley-street, sir. I do not know where we are.”

“We are in Soho-square and no, it is not far at all!”

When they reached the house in Harley-street the gentleman took a most affectionate farewell of Stephen, urging him not to feel sad at this parting and reminding him that they would meet again that very night at Lost-hope. “… when a most charming ceremony will be held in the belfry of the Easternmost Tower. It commemorates an occasion which happened – oh! five hundred years ago or so – when I cleverly contrived to capture the little children of my enemy and we pushed them out of the belfry to their deaths. Tonight we will re-enact this great triumph! We will dress straw dolls in the children’s blood-stained clothes and fling them down on to the paving stones and then we will sing and dance and rejoice over their destruction!”

“And do you perform this ceremony every year, sir? I feel sure I would have remembered it if I had seen it before. It is so very … striking.”

“I am glad you think so. I perform it whenever I think of it. Of course it was a great deal more striking when we used real children.”

27
The magician’s wife

December 1809–January 1810