manner
in which she and Anne had left their friends at the farm-house (on the
morning after I had met the woman in white in Limmeridge churchyard),
and then informing Mrs. Todd of Anne's disappearance, and entreating
that she would cause inquiries to be made in the neighbourhood, on the
chance that the lost woman might have strayed back to Limmeridge. In
making this request, Mrs. Clements had been careful to add to it the
address at which she might always be heard of, and that address Mrs.
Todd now transmitted to Marian. It was in London, and within half an
hour's walk of our own lodging.

In the words of the proverb, I was resolved not to let the grass grow
under my feet. The next morning I set forth to seek an interview with
Mrs. Clements. This was my first step forward in the investigation.
The story of the desperate attempt to which I now stood committed
begins here.

VI

The address communicated by Mrs. Todd took me to a lodging-house
situated in a respectable street near the Gray's Inn Road.

When I knocked the door was opened by Mrs. Clements herself. She did
not appear to remember me, and asked what my business was. I recalled
to her our meeting in Limmeridge churchyard at the close of my
interview there with the woman in white, taking special care to remind
her that I was the person who assisted Anne Catherick (as Anne had
herself declared) to escape the pursuit from the Asylum. This was my
only claim to the confidence of Mrs. Clements. She remembered the
circumstance the moment I spoke of it, and asked me into the parlour,
in the greatest anxiety to know if I had brought her any news of Anne.

It was impossible for me to tell her the whole truth without, at the
same time, entering into particulars on the subject of the conspiracy,
which it would have been dangerous to confide to a stranger. I could
only abstain most carefully from raising any false hopes, and then
explain that the object of my visit was to discover the persons who
were really responsible for Anne's disappearance. I even added, so as
to exonerate myself from any after-reproach of my own conscience, that
I entertained not the least hope of being able to trace her--that I
believed we should never see her alive again--and that my main interest
in the affair was to bring to punishment two men whom I suspected to be
concerned in luring her away, and at whose hands I and some dear
friends of mine had suffered a grievous wrong.