few months. How Mrs. Clements had been
separated from Anne, it was impossible for us to
say; but that separation once affected, it would
certainly occur to Mrs. Clements to inquire
after the missing woman in the neighbourhood
of all others to which she was known to be
most attached—- the neighbourhood of
Limmeridge. I saw directly that Marian's proposal
offered us a prospect of success; and she wrote
to Mrs. Todd accordingly by that day's post.

While we were waiting for the reply, I made
myself master of all the information Marian
could afford on the subject of Sir Percival's
family, and of his early life. She could only
speak on these topics from hearsay; but she
was reasonably certain of the truth of what
little she had to tell.

Sir Percival was an only child. His father,
Sir Felix Glyde, had suffered, from his birth,
under a painful and incurable deformity, and had
shunned all society from his earliest years. His
sole happiness was in the enjoyment of music;
and he had married a lady with tastes similar to
his own, who was said to be a most accomplished
musician. He inherited the Blackwater property
while still a young man. Neither he nor
his wife, after taking possession, made advances
of any sort towards the society of the neighbourhood;
and no one endeavoured to tempt
them into abandoning their reserve, with the one
disastrous exception of the rector of the parish.

The rector was the worst of all innocent
mischief-makers—- an over-zealous man. He had
heard that Sir Felix had left College with the
character of being little better than a
revolutionist in politics and an infidel in religion;
and he arrived conscientiously at the conclusion
that it was his bounden duty to summon the
lord of the manor to hear sound views enunciated
in the parish church. Sir Felix fiercely resented
the clergyman's well-meant but ill-directed
interference; insulting him so grossly and so
publicly, that the families in the neighbourhood
sent letters of indignant remonstrance to the
park; and even the tenants on the Blackwater
property expressed their opinion as strongly
as they dared. The baronet, who had no
country tastes of any kind, and no attachment
to the estate, or to any one living on it,
declared that society at Blackwater should never
have a second chance of annoying him; and left
the place from that moment. After a short
residence in London, he and his wife departed
for the Continent; and never returned to
England again. They lived part of the time in
France, and part in Germany —- always keeping
themselves in the strict retirement which the
morbid sense of his own personal deformity
had made a necessity to Sir Felix. Their
son, Percival, had been born abroad, and had
been educated there by private tutors. His
mother was the first of his parents whom he
lost. His father had died a few years after her.
either in 1825 or 1826. Sir Percival had been
in England, as a young man, once or twice
before that period; but his acquaintance with
the late Mr. Fairlie did not begin till after
the time of his father's death. They soon
became very intimate, although Sir Percival
was seldom, or never, at Limmeridge House
in those days. Mr. Frederick Fairlie might
have met him once or twice in Mr. Philip
Fairlie's company; but he could have known
little of him at that or at any other time. Sir
Percival's only intimate friend in the Fairlie
family had been Laura's father.

These were all the particulars that I could gain
from Marian. They suggested nothing which
was useful to my present purpose , but I noted
them down carefully, in the event of their proving
to be of importance at any future period.

Mrs. Todd's reply (addressed, by our own
wish, to a post-office at some distance from us)
had arrived at its destination when I went to
apply for it. The chances, which had been all
against us, hitherto, turned, from this moment,
in our favour. Mrs. Todd's letter contained the
first item of information of which we were in
search.

Mrs. Clements, it appeared, had (as we had
conjectured) written to Todd's Corner; asking
pardon in the first place, for the abrupt manner
in which she and Anne had left their friends at
the farm-house (on the morning after I had met
the woman in white in Limmeridge churchyard);
and then informing Mrs. Todd of Anne's
disappearance, and entreating that she would cause
inquiries to be made in the neighbourhood, on
the chance that the lost woman might have
strayed back to Limmeridge. In making this
request, Mrs. Clements had been careful to add
to it the address at which she might always be
heard of; and that address Mrs. Todd now
transmitted to Marian. It was in London; and
within half an hour's walk of our own lodging.

In the words of the proverb, I was resolved
not to let the grass grow under my feet. The
next morning, I set forth to seek an interview
with Mrs. Clements. This was my first step
forward in the investigation. The story of the
desperate attempt to which I now stood
committed, begins here.

                                VI.

THE address communicated by Mrs. Todd took
me to a lodging-house situated in a respectable
street near the Gray's Inn-road.

When I knocked, the door was opened by Mrs.
Clements herself. She did not appear to
remember me; and asked what my business was.
I recalled to her our meeting in Limmeridge
churchyard, at the close of my interview there
with the woman in white; taking special care to
remind her that I was the person who assisted
Anne Catherick (as Anne had herself declared)
to escape the pursuit from the Asylum. This
was my only claim to the confidence of Mrs.
Clements. She remembered the circumstance
the moment I spoke of it; and asked me into
the parlour, in the greatest anxiety to know if I
had brought her any news of Anne.

It was impossible for me to tell her the
whole truth, without, at the same time, entering
into particulars on the subject of the conspiracy,
which it would have been dangerous to