that she would soon see Lady Glyde in London. At the appointed day and
time (when they had not been quite so long as a week in Hampshire
altogether), they arrived at the station. The Count was waiting there
for them, and was talking to an elderly lady, who appeared to be going
to travel by the train to London also. He most kindly assisted them,
and put them into the carriage himself, begging Mrs. Clements not to
forget to send her address to Lady Glyde. The elderly lady did not
travel in the same compartment, and they did not notice what became of
her on reaching the London terminus. Mrs. Clements secured respectable
lodgings in a quiet neighbourhood, and then wrote, as she had engaged
to do, to inform Lady Glyde of the address.

A little more than a fortnight passed, and no answer came.

At the end of that time a lady (the same elderly lady whom they had
seen at the station) called in a cab, and said that she came from Lady
Glyde, who was then at an hotel in London, and who wished to see Mrs.
Clements, for the purpose of arranging a future interview with Anne.
Mrs. Clements expressed her willingness (Anne being present at the
time, and entreating her to do so) to forward the object in view,
especially as she was not required to be away from the house for more
than half an hour at the most. She and the elderly lady (clearly Madame
Fosco) then left in the cab. The lady stopped the cab, after it had
driven some distance, at a shop before they got to the hotel, and
begged Mrs. Clements to wait for her for a few minutes while she made a
purchase that had been forgotten. She never appeared again.

After waiting some time Mrs. Clements became alarmed, and ordered the
cabman to drive back to her lodgings. When she got there, after an
absence of rather more than half an hour, Anne was gone.

The only information to be obtained from the people of the house was
derived from the servant who waited on the lodgers. She had opened the
door to a boy from the street, who had left a letter for "the young
woman who lived on the second floor" (the part of the house which Mrs.
Clements occupied). The servant had delivered the letter, had then
gone downstairs, and five minutes afterwards had observed Anne open the
front door and go out, dressed in her bonnet and shawl. She had
probably taken the letter with her, for it was not to be found, and it
was therefore impossible to tell what inducement had been offered to
make her le