u off your guard; and you will
continue to distrust me as obstinately as ever. In that case, I will
merely remind you that my letter is private and confidential, and I will
not ask you to send me a reply.

"I remain, Sir, yours as you may receive me,
"THE DEAF LODGER

I wonder what another man, in my position, would have done when he had
read this letter? Would he have seen in it nothing to justify some
respect and some kindly feeling towards the writer? Could he have
reconciled it to his conscience to leave the afflicted man who had
trusted him without a word of reply?

For my part (do not forget what a young man I was in those days), I made
up my mind to reply in the friendliest manner--that is to say, in person.

After consulting my watch, I satisfied myself that I could go to the
mill, and get back again, before the hour fixed for our late
dinner--supper we should have called it in Germany. For the second time
that day, and without any hesitation, I took the road that led to
Fordwitch Wood.

Crossing the glade, I encountered a stout young woman, filling a can with
water from the spring. She curtseyed on seeing me. I asked if she
belonged to the village.

The reply informed me that I had taken another of my servants for a
stranger. The stout nymph of the spring was my kitchen-maid; and she was
fetching the water which we drank at the house; "and there's no water,
sir, like _yours_ for all the country round." Furnished with these stores
of information, I went my way, and the kitchen-maid went hers. She spoke,
of course, of having seen her new master, on returning to the servants'
hall. In this manner, as I afterwards heard, the discovery of me at the
spring, and my departure by the path that led to the mill, reached Mrs.
Roylake's ears--the medium of information being the lady's own maid. So
far, Fordwitch Wood seemed to be a place to avoid, in the interests of my
domestic tranquillity.

Arriving at the cottage, I found the Lodger standing by the open window
at which I had first seen him.

But on this occasion, his personal appearance had undergone a singular
process of transformation. The lower part of his face, from his nostrils
to his chin, was hidden by a white handkerchief tied round it. He had
removed the stopper from a strangely shaped bottle, and was absorbed in
watching some interesting condition in a dusky liquid that it contained.
To attract his attention by speaking was of course out of the q