ed over
the gate for one brief moment and then so unaccountably disappeared.
What would have been the use? He felt baffled and perplexed, but it
was not likely that Aunt Charlotte would be able to throw any light
upon the mystery. She would probably say that he had been dreaming, or
that he only imagined it, or that it was an old gipsy woman, or one of
the MacTavish girls playing a trick, or something equally fatuous and
absurd. But the more he thought of it the more he was convinced of the
reality of the whole thing, and of the existence of some great marvel.
That he had seen the lady was beyond question. That she had vanished
the next moment was also beyond question. That she had hidden behind a
tree or gone crouching in a ditch was inconceivable, to say the least
of it; so fair and gracious a person would scarcely descend to such
undignified manoeuvres, worthy only of a hoydenish peasant girl. And
yet, what could possibly have become of her? The enigma was quite
unsolvable.

The next morning brought with it a surprise. Aunt Charlotte had some
very important documents that she wanted to deposit with her
bankers--so important, indeed, that she did not like to entrust them
to the post; so Austin, half in jest, proposed that he should go to
town himself by an early train, and leave them at the bank in person.
To his no small astonishment, Aunt Charlotte took him at his word,
though not without some misgivings; instructed him to send her a
telegram as soon as ever the papers were in safe custody, and assured
him that she would not have a moment's peace until she got it. Austin,
much excited at the prospect of a change, packed the documents away in
the pistol-pocket of his trousers, and started off immediately after
breakfast in high spirits. The journey was a great delight to him, as
he had not travelled by railway for nearly a couple of years, and he
derived immense amusement from watching his fellow-passengers and
listening to their conversation. There was a party of very
serious-minded American tourists, with an accent reverberant enough to
have cracked the windows of the carriage had they not, luckily, been
open; and from the talk of these good people he learnt that they came
from a place called New Jerusalem, that they intended to do London in
two days, and that they answered to the names of Mr Thwing, Mr Moment,
and Mr and Mrs Skull. The gentlemen were arrayed in shiny
broad-cloth, with narrow black ties, tied in a