lied for
a warrant to search for his daughter in Delavie House, there was much
surprise and reluctance to put such an insult on a lady of quality in
favour at Court. On his giving his reasons on oath for believing the
young lady to be there, the grounds of his belief seemed to shrink away,
so that the three magistrates held consultation whether the warrant
could be granted. Finally, after eying him all over, and asking him
where he had served, one of them, who had the air of having been in the
army, told him that in consideration of his being a gentleman of high
respectability who had served his country, they granted what he asked,
being assured that he would not make the accusation lightly. The reforms
made by Fielding had not yet begun, everybody had too much work, and the
poor Major had still some time to wait before an officer--tipstaff, as
he was called--could accompany him, so that it was past noon when,
off in the Bowstead carriage again, they went along the Strand, to a
high-walled court belonging to one of the old houses of the nobility,
most of which had perished in the fire of London. There was a
double-doored gateway, and after much thundering in vain, at which the
tipstaff, a red-nosed old soldier, waxed very irate, the old woman came
out in curtseying, crying, frightened humility, declaring that they
would find no one there--they might look if they would.

So they drove over the paved road, crossing the pitched pebbles, the
door was unbarred, but no Aurelia sprang into her father's arms. Only a
little terrier came barking out into the dismal paved hall. Into every
room they looked, the old woman asseverating denials that it was of no
use, they might see for themselves, that no one had been there for years
past. Full of emptiness, indeed, with faded grimy family portraits on
the walls, moth-eaten carpets and cushions, high-backed chairs with
worm-holes; and yet, somehow, there was one room that did look as if
it had recently been sat in. Two little stools were drawn up close to a
chair; the terrier poked and smelt about uneasily as though in search
of some one, and dragged out from under a couch a child's ball which he
began to worry. On the carpet, too, were some fragments of bright fresh
embroidery silk, which the practiced eye of the constable noticed. "This
here was not left ten or a dozen years ago," said he; and, extracting
the ball from the fangs of the dog, "No, and this ball ain't ten year
old, nei