I let him kiss my
hand, and sent him off to the train.

"Now that I am alone again, and able to think calmly of the interview
between me and my elderly admirer, I find myself recalling a certain
change in old Bashwood's manner which puzzled me at the time, and which
puzzles me still.

"Even in his first moments of agitation at seeing me, I thought that his
eyes rested on my face with a new kind of interest while I was speaking
to him. Besides this, he dropped a word or two afterward, in telling me
of his lonely life at Thorpe Ambrose, which seemed to imply that he
had been sustained in his solitude by a feeling of confidence about his
future relations with me when we next met. If he had been a younger and
a bolder man (and if any such discovery had been possible), I should
almost have suspected him of having found out something about my past
life which had made him privately confident of controlling me, if I
showed any disposition to deceive and desert him again. But such an idea
as this in connection with old Bashwood is simply absurd. Perhaps I am
overexcited by the suspense and anxiety of my present position? Perhaps
the merest fancies and suspicions are leading me astray? Let this be as
it may, I have, at any rate, more serious subjects than the subject
of old Bashwood to occupy me now. Tomorrow's post may tell me what
Armadale's representatives think of the claim of Armadale's widow."

"November 26th.--The answer has arrived this morning, in the form (as
Bashwood supposed) of a letter from Mr. Darch. The crabbed old lawyer
acknowledges my letter in three lines. Before he takes any steps, or
expresses any opinion on the subject, he wants evidence of identity as
well as the evidence of the certificate; and he ventures to suggest that
it may be desirable, before we go any further, to refer him to my legal
advisers.

"Two o'clock.--The doctor called shortly after twelve to say that he had
found a lodging for me within twenty minutes' walk of the Sanitarium. In
return for his news, I showed him Mr. Darch's letter. He took it away at
once to his lawyers, and came back with the necessary information for
my guidance. I have answered Mr. Darch by sending him the address of
my legal advisers--otherwise, the doctor's lawyers--without making any
comment on the desire that he has expressed for additional evidence of
the marriage. This is all that can be done to-day. To-morrow will bring
with it events of greater interest,