poral discovered the fact that Fanny
Aubrey was confined in the mansion of the Honorable Mr. Tickels, in
South street.

Great was the consternation and alarm of the blind basket-maker and
little Charley, as the day passed away and evening came on, without the
return of Fanny. They were agitated with a thousand fears for her
safety, for both their lives were bound up in hers, and they doted on
her with an affection rendered doubly ardent by their poverty and almost
complete isolation from the world. In the midst of their distress,
Corporal Grimsby entered, bringing, as on the evening before, a basket
of provisions. To him they communicated the intelligence that Fanny had
not returned; and the eccentric old man, without waiting to hear the
recital of their fears, threw the basket on the table, bolted
precipitately down stairs, and walked away towards Ann street with a
rapidity that betokened the existence of some fixed purpose in his mind.
Meanwhile, his reflections ran somewhat in the following strain, and
were half muttered aloud, as he trudged quickly onward, now nearly
upsetting a foot passenger and receiving a malediction on his
awkwardness, and then bruising his unlucky shins against lampposts and
other street fixtures.

"By the nose of Napoleon! what can have become of the little minx? lost
or stolen?--most probably the latter, for in this infernal city a pretty
girl like her, so unprotected and so poor, can no more traverse the
streets with safety, than can a fine fat goose waddle into the den of a
wolf unharmed. Curses on these lampposts, I am always breaking my neck
against them--bah! Well, to consider: but why the devil do I interest
myself in this little girl at all? Is it because I am a lonely, solitary
old codger, with neither chick nor child to bless me with their love,
and whom I may love in return? Bah! no--that can't be; and yet, somehow,
there is a vacant corner in my old heart, and the image of that little
girl seems to fill it exactly. I am an old fool, and yet--damn you, sir,
what d'ye mean by running against me, eh!--and yet, it did me more good
to see that hungry family last night, eat the food that I had provided
for them, than it did when I, Gregory Grimsby, was promoted to the
elevated rank of Corporal. Now about this little girl--I'll bet my
three-cornered cock'd hat against a pinch of Scotch snuff that she has
been abducted--entrapped into the power of some scoundrel for the worst
of purpose