"When do you expect her back?" asked Mat.

"Not for a week or ten days, sir," answered the girl. "Mother said she
wouldn't have gone, but for uncle Bob being her only brother, and not
having wife or child to look after him at Bangbury."

_(Bangbury!_--Where had he heard that name before?)

"Father's up at the rectory, sir," continued the girl, observing that
the stranger looked both disappointed and puzzled. "If it's dairy
business you come upon, I can attend to it; but it's anything about
accounts to settle, mother said they were to be sent on to her."

"Maybe I shall have a letter to send your mother," said Mat, after a
moment's consideration. "Can you write me down on a bit of paper where
she is?"

"Oh, yes, sir." And the girl very civilly and readily wrote in her best
round hand, on a slip of bill-paper, this address:--"Martha Peckover, at
Rob: Randle, 2 Dawson's Buildings, Bangbury."

Mat absently took the slip of paper from her, and put it into his
pocket; then thanked the girl, and went out. While he was inside the
shop, he had been trying in vain to call to mind where he had heard
the name of Bangbury before: the moment he was in the street, the lost
remembrance came back to him. Surely, Bangbury was the place where
Joanna Grice had told him that Mary was buried!

After walking a few paces, he came to a large linen-draper's shop, with
plenty of light in the window. Stopping here, he hastily drew from his
pocket the manuscript containing the old woman's "Justification" of
her conduct; for he wished to be certain about the accuracy of his
recollection, and he had an idea that the part of the Narrative which
mentioned Mary's death would help to decide him in his present doubt.

Yes! on turning to the last page, there it was written in so many
words: "I sent, by a person I could depend on, money enough to bury her
decently in Bangbury churchyard."

"I'll go there to-night," said Mat to himself, thrusting the letter into
his pocket, and taking the way back to the railway station immediately.

CHAPTER XIV. MARY'S GRAVE.

Matthew Grice was a resolute traveler; but no resolution is powerful
enough to alter the laws of inexorable Time-Tables to suit the
convenience of individual passengers. Although Mat left Rubbleford
in less than an hour after he had arrived there, he only succeeded in
getting half way to Bangbury, before he had to stop for the night, and
wait at an intermediate station for the firs