Julia had taught
me that my patient could not read a novel on a Sunday with a quiet
conscience.

Barbet brought half a sheet of an old _Times_ to form the first cover of
my parcel. The shop was crowded with market-people, and, as he was busy,
I undertook to pack them myself, the more willingly as I had no wish for
him to know what direction I wrote upon them. I was about to fold the
newspaper round them, when my eye was caught by an advertisement at the
top of one of the columns, the first line of which was printed in
capitals. I recollected in an instant that I had seen it and read it
before. This was what I had tried in vain to recall while Tardif was
describing Miss Ollivier to me. "Strayed from her home in London, on the
20th inst., a young lady with bright-brown hair, gray eyes, and delicate
features; age twenty one. She is believed to have been alone. Was
dressed in a blue-silk dress, and seal-skin jacket and hat. Fifty pounds
reward is offered to any person giving such information as will lead to
her restoration to her friends. Apply to Messrs. Scott and Brown, Gray's
Inn Road, E.C."

I stood perfectly still for some seconds, staring blankly at the very
simple, direct advertisement under my eyes. There was not the slightest
doubt in my mind that it had a direct reference to my pretty patient in
Sark. I had a reason for recollecting the date of Tardif's return from
London, the very day after the mournful disaster off the Havre Gosselin,
when four gentlemen and a boatman had been lost during a squall. But I
had no time for deliberation then, and I tore off a large corner of the
_Times_ containing that and other advertisements, and thrust it unseen
into my pocket. After that I went on with my work, and succeeded in
turning out a creditable-looking parcel, which I carried down to the
Sark cutter.

Before I returned home I made two or three half-professional calls upon
patients whom my father had visited during my absence. Everywhere I had
to submit to numerous questions as to my adventures and pursuits during
my week's exile. At each place curiosity seemed to be quite satisfied
with the information that the young woman who had been hurt by a fall
from the cliffs was an Ollivier. With that freedom and familiarity which
exists among us, I was rallied for my evident absence and preoccupation
of mind, which were pleasantly ascribed to the well-known fact that a
large quantity of furniture for our new house had arrived