kind, on the day she arrived at the farm; and
Mrs. Todd had connected it, on that occasion,
with something she was reading at the time in
our local newspaper, which lay on the farm table,
and which she had taken up only a minute or
two before."

"Does Mrs. Todd know what particular
passage in the newspaper affected her in that
way?" I inquired.

"No," replied Miss Halcombe. "She had
looked it over, and had seen nothing in it to
agitate any one. I asked leave, however, to
look it over in my turn; and at the very first
page I opened, I found that the editor had
enriched his small stock of news by drawing
upon our family affairs, and had published my
sister's marriage engagement, among his other
announcements, copied from the London papers,
of Marriages in High Life. I concluded at
once that this was the paragraph which had so
strangely affected Anne Catherick; and I
thought I saw in it, also, the origin of the letter
which she sent to our house the next day."

"There can be no doubt in either case. But
what did you hear about her second attack of
faintness yesterday evening?"

"Nothing. The cause of it is a complete
mystery. There was no stranger in the room.
The only visitor was our dairymaid, who, as I
told you, is one of Mr. Todd's daughters; and
the only conversation was the usual gossip about
local affairs. They heard her cry out, and saw
her turn deadly pale, without the slightest
apparent reason. Mrs. Todd and Mrs. Clements
took her up-stairs; and Mrs. Clements remained
with her. They were heard talking together
until long after the usual bedtime; and, early
this morning, Mrs. Clements took Mrs. Todd
aside, and amazed her beyond all power of
expression, by saying that they must go. The only
explanation Mrs. Todd could extract from her
guest was, that something had happened, which
was not the fault of any one at the farm-house,
but which was serious enough to make Anne
Catherick resolve to leave Limmeridge
immediately. It was quite useless to press Mrs.
Clements to be more explicit. She only shook
her head, and said that, for Anne's sake, she
must beg and pray that no one would question
her. All she could repeat, with every appearance
of being seriously agitated herself, was
that Anne must go, that she must go with her,
and that the destination to which they might
both betake themselves must be kept a secret
from everybody. I spare you the recital of
Mrs. Todd's hospitable remonstrances and
refusals. It ended in her driving them both to
the nearest station, more than three hours since.
She tried hard, on the way, to get them to
speak more plainly; but without success. And
she set them down outside the station-door, so
hurt and offended by the unceremonious abruptness
of their departure and their unfriendly
reluctance to place the least confidence in her,
that she drove away in anger, without so much
as stopping to bid them good-by. That is
exactly what has taken place. Search your own
memory, Mr. Hartright, and tell me if anything
happened in the burial-ground yesterday evening
which can at all account for the extraordinary
departure of those two women this morning."

"I should like to account first, Miss
Halcombe, for the sudden change in Anne Catherick
which alarmed them at the farm-house, hours
after she and I had parted, and when time
enough had elapsed to quiet any violent agitation
that I might have been unfortunate enough
to cause. Did you inquire particularly about
the gossip which was going on in the room
when she turned faint?"

"Yes. But Mrs. Todd's household affairs
seem to have divided her attention, that evening,
with the talk in the farm-house parlour.
She could only tell me that it was 'just the
news'—meaning, I suppose, that they all talked
as usual about each other."

"The dairymaid's memory may be better than
her mother's," I said. "It may be as well for
you to speak to the girl, Miss Halcombe, as soon
as we get back."

My suggestion was acted on the moment we
returned to the house. Miss Halcombe led me
round to the servants' offices, and we found the
girl in the dairy, with her sleeves tucked up to
her shoulders, cleaning a large milk-pan, and
singing blithely over her work.

"I have brought this gentleman to see your
dairy, Hannah," said Miss Halcombe. "It is
one of the sights of the house, and it always
does you credit."

The girl blushed and curtseyed, and said,
shyly, that she hoped she always did her best to
keep things neat and clean.

"We have just come from your father's,"
Miss Halcombe continued. "You were there
yesterday evening, I hear; and you found
visitors at the house?"

"Yes, miss."

"One of them was taken faint and ill, I am
told? I suppose nothing was said or done to
frighten her? You were not talking of anything
very terrible, were you?"

"Oh, no, miss!" said the girl, laughing.
"We were only talking of the news,"

"Your sisters told you the news at Todd's
Corner, I suppose?"

"Yes, miss."

"And you told them the news at Limmeridge
House?"

"Yes, miss. And I'm quite sure nothing was
said to frighten the poor thing, for I was talking
when she was taken ill. It gave me quite a
turn, miss, to see it, never having been taken
faint myself."

Before any more questions could be put to
her, she was called away to receive a basket of
eggs at the dairy door. As she left us, I
whispered to Miss Halcombe:

"Ask her if she happened to mention, last
night, that visitors were expected at Limmeridge
House."

Miss Halcombe showed me, by a look, that
she understood, and put the question as soon as
the dairymaid returned to us.