on me. "I can't find out what she saw in his face. I
can't guess what she heard in his voice." She suddenly looked away from
me, and rested her head wearily on the top of her crutch. "Oh, my poor
dear!" she said, in the first soft tones which had fallen from her, in
my hearing. "Oh, my lost darling! what could you see in this man?" She
lifted her head again fiercely, and looked at me once more. "Can you eat
and drink?" she asked.

I did my best to preserve my gravity, and answered, "Yes."

"Can you sleep?"

"Yes."

"When you see a poor girl in service, do you feel no remorse?"

"Certainly not. Why should I?"

She abruptly thrust the letter (as the phrase is) into my face.

"Take it!" she exclaimed furiously. "I never set eyes on you before. God
Almighty forbid I should ever set eyes on you again."

With those parting words she limped away from me at the top of her
speed. The one interpretation that I could put on her conduct has, no
doubt, been anticipated by everybody. I could only suppose that she was
mad.

Having reached that inevitable conclusion, I turned to the more
interesting object of investigation which was presented to me by Rosanna
Spearman's letter. The address was written as follows:--"For Franklin
Blake, Esq. To be given into his own hands (and not to be trusted to any
one else), by Lucy Yolland."

I broke the seal. The envelope contained a letter: and this, in its
turn, contained a slip of paper. I read the letter first:--

"Sir,--If you are curious to know the meaning of my behaviour to you,
whilst you were staying in the house of my mistress, Lady Verinder, do
what you are told to do in the memorandum enclosed with this--and do it
without any person being present to overlook you. Your humble servant,

"ROSANNA SPEARMAN."

I turned to the slip of paper next. Here is the literal copy of it, word
for word:

"Memorandum:--To go to the Shivering Sand at the turn of the tide. To
walk out on the South Spit, until I get the South Spit Beacon, and
the flagstaff at the Coast-guard station above Cobb's Hole in a line
together. To lay down on the rocks, a stick, or any straight thing to
guide my hand, exactly in the line of the beacon and the flagstaff. To
take care, in doing this, that one end of the stick shall be at the edge
of the rocks, on the side of them which overlooks the quicksand. To feel
along the stick, among the sea-weed (beginning from the end of the stick
which points towards the