sistance,
Midwinter had drawn him out a draft of the necessary letter, and
Armadale was now engaged in copying the draft, and also in writing to
Mr. Bashwood to lodge the money immediately in Coutts's Bank.

"These details are so dry and uninteresting in themselves that I
hesitated at first about putting them down in my diary. But a little
reflection has convinced me that they are too important to be passed
over. Looked at from my point of view, they mean this--that Armadale's
own act is now cutting him off from all communication with Thorpe
Ambrose, even by letter. _He is as good as dead already to everybody he
leaves behind him_. The causes which have led to such a result as that
are causes which certainly claim the best place I can give them in these
pages."

"August 1st.--Nothing to record, but that I have had a long, quiet,
happy day with Midwinter. He hired a carriage, and we drove to Richmond,
and dined there. After to-day's experience, it is impossible to deceive
myself any longer. Come what may of it, I love him.

"I have fallen into low spirits since he left me. A persuasion has
taken possession of my mind that the smooth and prosperous course of
my affairs since I have been in London is too smooth and prosperous to
last. There is something oppressing me to-night, which is more than the
oppression of the heavy London air."

"August 2d.--Three o'clock.--My presentiments, like other people's, have
deceived me often enough; but I am almost afraid that my presentiment of
last night was really prophetic, for once in a way.

"I went after breakfast to a milliner's in this neighborhood to order a
few cheap summer things, and thence to Midwinter's hotel to arrange with
him for another day in the country. I drove to the milliner's and to the
hotel, and part of the way back. Then, feeling disgusted with the horrid
close smell of the cab (somebody had been smoking in it, I suppose), I
got out to walk the rest of the way. Before I had been two minutes on my
feet, I discovered that I was being followed by a strange man.

"This may mean nothing but that an idle fellow has been struck by
my figure, and my appearance generally. My face could have made no
impression on him, for it was hidden as usual by my veil. Whether he
followed me (in a cab, of course) from the milliner's, or from the
hotel, I cannot say. Nor am I quite certain whether he did or did not
track me to this door. I only know that I lost sight of him