ct, and next to Budmouth,
whence he intended to cross the Channel by steamboat that night.

He hardly knew how the evening passed away. He had taken up his quarters
at an inn near the quay, and as the night drew on he stood gazing from
the coffee-room window at the steamer outside, which nearly thrust its
spars through the bedroom casements, and at the goods that were being
tumbled on board as only shippers can tumble them. All the goods were
laden, a lamp was put on each side the gangway, the engines broke into
a crackling roar, and people began to enter. They were only waiting for
the last train: then they would be off. Still Somerset did not move;
he was thinking of that curious half-told story of Charlotte's, about
a telegram to Paula for money from Nice. Not once till within the last
half-hour had it recurred to his mind that he had met Dare both at Nice
and at Monte Carlo; that at the latter place he had been absolutely out
of money and wished to borrow, showing considerable sinister feeling
when Somerset declined to lend: that on one or two previous occasions he
had reasons for doubting Dare's probity; and that in spite of the young
man's impoverishment at Monte Carlo he had, a few days later, beheld
him in shining raiment at Carlsruhe. Somerset, though misty in his
conjectures, was seized with a growing conviction that there was
something in Miss De Stancy's allusion to the telegram which ought to be
explained.

He felt an insurmountable objection to cross the water that night, or
till he had been able to see Charlotte again, and learn more of her
meaning. He countermanded the order to put his luggage on board, watched
the steamer out of the harbour, and went to bed. He might as well have
gone to battle, for any rest that he got. On rising the next morning he
felt rather blank, though none the less convinced that a matter required
investigation. He left Budmouth by a morning train, and about eleven
o'clock found himself in Markton.

The momentum of a practical inquiry took him through that ancient
borough without leaving him much leisure for those reveries which had
yesterday lent an unutterable sadness to every object there. It was just
before noon that he started for the castle, intending to arrive at a
time of the morning when, as he knew from experience, he could speak to
Charlotte without difficulty. The rising ground soon revealed the old
towers to him, and, jutting out behind them, the scaffoldings for