that chance is removed by Mr.
Brock's death. It means something; I wish I knew what.

"The funeral is to be on Saturday morning. Midwinter will attend it
as well as Armadale. But he proposes returning to London first; and he
writes word that he will call to-night, in the hope of seeing me, on his
way from the station to the hotel. Even if there was any risk in it, I
should see him, as things are now. But there is no risk if he comes here
from the station instead of coming from the hotel."

"Five o'clock.--I was not mistaken in believing that my nerves were all
unstrung. Trifles that would not have cost me a second thought at other
times weigh heavily on my mind now.

"Two hours since, in despair of knowing how to get through the day, I
bethought myself of the milliner who is making my summer dress. I had
intended to go and try it on yesterday; but it slipped out of my memory
in the excitement of hearing about Mr. Brock. So I went this afternoon,
eager to do anything that might help me to get rid of myself. I have
returned, feeling more uneasy and more depressed than I felt when I went
out; for I have come back fearing that I may yet have reason to repent
not having left my unfinished dress on the milliner's hands.

"Nothing happened to me, this time, in the street. It was only in the
trying-on room that my suspicions were roused; and there it certainly
did cross my mind that the attempt to discover me, which I defeated
at All Saints' Terrace, was not given up yet, and that some of the
shop-women had been tampered with, if not the mistress herself.

"Can I give myself anything in the shape of a reason for this
impression? Let me think a little.

"I certainly noticed two things which were out of the ordinary routine,
under the circumstances. In the first place, there were twice as many
women as were needed in the trying-on room. This looked suspicious; and
yet I might have accounted for it in more ways than one. Is it not the
slack time now? and don't I know by experience that I am the sort of
woman about whom other women are always spitefully curious? I thought
again, in the second place, that one of the assistants persisted rather
oddly in keeping me turned in a particular direction, with my face
toward the glazed and curtained door that led into the work-room. But,
after all, she gave a reason when I asked for it. She said the light
fell better on me that way; and, when I looked round, there was the
window to p