How did Lent and Pastrana meet?

Up to this point, Lent's actions seem to be opportunistic, a characterization that likely affected his decision to court and marry Julia Pastrana. Although we can't be certain where Lent and Pastrana met, an examination of the addresses associated with the pair hint at the ways that they may have connected. Consider the places that Pastrana performed:

Dec. 1-14, 1854: Gothic Hall, 316 Broadway (between Duane and Worth Streets)

Dec. 15, 1854-January 4, 1855: Stuyvesant Institute, 659 Broadway (between West 3rd/Jones Street and Bleecker)

November 6-7, 1855: 584 Broadway, opposite St. Nicholas Hotel (this location may have been the Metropolitan Hotel or Niblo's Garden). 

In an 1853-4 directory, Lent is listed at 495 Broadway, just two blocks away from where Pastrana performed. Although it isn't clear where Lent was living in 1855, he had mostly lived in lower Manhattan previously. Moreover, in 1856, Samuel E. was listed in the directory at 624 Broadway, within two blocks of Pastrana's performances in New York City. It seems likely that their paths crossed at some point or that Lent attended Pastrana's performances.

The question remains, though, how he and Samuel happened to be traveling with Pastrana, Beach, and Sepulveda in Baltimore. According to several newspaper articles, the brothers were also performing with Pastrana. Given Lent's past, it is certainly possible that he represented himself as a performer as a way of getting close to Pastrana. One other possibility involves the family-run stage/omnibus company. Perhaps Theodore and Samuel were driving the vehicles that carried Pastrana's party from New York to Baltimore. However, more believable is the story in the National Police Gazette that the Lent brothers were in the employ of Beach and Sepulveda--that they "attended to the details of the exhibition." 

In any event, we do know that Pastrana willingly married Lent in Baltimore who took over her management until her death. 

How did Lent and Pastrana meet?