her his own presentiment (which he had mentioned to Zack), that the
man was still alive somewhere; and he felt confident that he had it
in his power, as a last resource, to awe the old woman into confessing
everything that she knew. To Dibbledean, therefore, in the first
instance, he resolved to go.

If he failed there in finding any clue to the object of his inquiry, he
determined to repair next to Rubbleford, and to address himself boldly
to Mrs. Peckover. He remembered that, when Zack had first mentioned her
extraordinary behavior about the Hair Bracelet in Mr. Blyth's hall, he
had prefaced his words by saying, that she knew apparently as much of
Madonna's history as the painter did himself; and that she kept that
knowledge just as close and secret. This woman, therefore, doubtless
possessed information which she might be either entrapped or forced into
communicating. There would be no difficulty about finding out where she
lived; for, on the evening when he had mimicked her, young Thorpe had
said that she kept a dairy and muffin-shop at Rubbleford. To that town,
then, he proposed to journey, in the event of failing in his purpose at
Dibbledean.

And if, by any evil chance, he should end in ascertaining no more from
Mrs. Peckover than from Joanna Grice, what course should he take next?
There would be nothing to be done then, but to return to London--to
try the last great hazard--to discover himself to Mr. Blyth, come what
might, with the Hair Bracelet to vouch for him in his hand.

These were his thoughts, as he sat alone in the lodging in Kirk
Street. At night, they had ended in the fatal consolation of the brandy
bottle--in the desperate and solitary excess, which had so cheated him
of his self-control, that the lurking taint which his life among the
savages had left in his disposition, and the deadly rancor which his
recent discovery of his sister's fate had stored up in his heart,
escaped from concealment, and betrayed themselves in that half-drunken,
half-sober occupation of scouring the rifle-barrel, which it had so
greatly amazed Zack to witness, and which the lad had so suddenly and
strangely suspended by his few chance words of sympathizing reference to
Mary's death.

But, in the morning, Mat's head was clear, and his dangerous instincts
were held once more under cunning control. In the morning, therefore, he
declined explaining himself to young Thorpe, and started quietly for the
country by the first tr