y addressing you?

"In compliance with your desire that I should not allow this day (the
Sunday) to pass without privately noticing what went on at the great
house, I took the keys, and went this morning to the steward's office. I
accounted for my appearance to the servants by informing them that I had
work to do which it was important to complete in the shortest possible
time. The same excuse would have done for Mr. Armadale if we had met,
but no such meeting happened.

"Although I was at Thorpe Ambrose in what I thought good time, I was too
late to see or hear anything myself of a serious quarrel which appeared
to have taken place, just before I arrived, between Mr. Armadale and Mr.
Midwinter.

"All the little information I can give you in this matter is derived
from one of the servants. The man told me that he heard the voices of
the two gentlemen loud in Mr. Armadale's sitting-room. He went in to
announce breakfast shortly afterward, and found Mr. Midwinter in such
a dreadful state of agitation that he had to be helped out of the room.
The servant tried to take him upstairs to lie down and compose himself.
He declined, saying he would wait a little first in one of the lower
rooms, and begging that he might be left alone. The man had hardly got
downstairs again when he heard the front door opened and closed. He ran
back, and found that Mr. Midwinter was gone. The rain was pouring at the
time, and thunder and lightning came soon afterward. Dreadful weather
certainly to go out in. The servant thinks Mr. Midwinter's mind was
unsettled. I sincerely hope not. Mr. Midwinter is one of the few people
I have met with in the course of my life who have treated me kindly.

"Hearing that Mr. Armadale still remained in the sitting-room, I went
into the steward's office (which, as you may remember, is on the same
side of the house), and left the door ajar, and set the window open,
waiting and listening for anything that might happen. Dear madam, there
was a time when I might have thought such a position in the house of my
employer not a very becoming one. Let me hasten to assure you that this
is far from being my feeling now. I glory in any position which makes me
serviceable to you.

"The state of the weather seemed hopelessly adverse to that renewal
of intercourse between Mr. Armadale and Miss Milroy which you so
confidently anticipate, and of which you are so anxious to be made
aware. Strangely enough, however, it is actual