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“Get on with it, Ian,” the stranger said in a deep, is

“Dear me, Max” Mr Keith shook his head as if he found the other man beyond his comprehension, and then he called out to his helpers The balloon was cast off without fuss, ballast was thrown out, and they began to rise, quite quickly, into the London sky

“Oh!” Marietta gasped

The ground was rapidly slipping away fro se silence, alher Below her lay Vauxhall Gardens, and then the Thames, and beyond that the bustle of London, with its pall of s away as far as she could see The Houses of Parlia awfully s the lines of streets and the boxes that were houses

“You haven’t been introduced” Mr Keith spoke above the soft underlying roar of the city below them

Reluctantly Marietta lifted her eyes fro

Mr Keith smiled at her as if he understood her sense of dislocation “Miss Greentree, this is my friend, Max Max, this is Miss Greentree”

“How do you do,” Max said in a disinterested voice He gave her a brief glance that wasonce aze down over the city spread beneath them

Marietta shrugged off his behavior, and returned to her own perusal of the Thaes, with ships at anchor and stea towards Rich behind the smoke of London and its pointed spires

“Are you enjoying yourself, Miss Greentree?”

Marietta beained, sir”

“Not anxious about heights then?”

“Oh no, not at all!”

He grinned at her, the lines about his eyes deepening “I alad My friend here didn’t want to co the ascent today I thought he would be company for us Noish I’d told him to stay ho to spoil our fun”

Marietta giggled, and then bit her lip when Max shot her a hard look from narrowed dark eyes