lso,
the origin of the letter which she sent to our house the next day."

"There can be no doubt in either case. But what did you hear about her
second attack of faintness yesterday evening?"

"Nothing. The cause of it is a complete mystery. There was no
stranger in the room. The only visitor was our dairymaid, who, as I
told you, is one of Mr. Todd's daughters, and the only conversation was
the usual gossip about local affairs. They heard her cry out, and saw
her turn deadly pale, without the slightest apparent reason. Mrs. Todd
and Mrs. Clements took her upstairs, and Mrs. Clements remained with
her. They were heard talking together until long after the usual
bedtime, and early this morning Mrs. Clements took Mrs. Todd aside, and
amazed her beyond all power of expression by saying that they must go.
The only explanation Mrs. Todd could extract from her guest was, that
something had happened, which was not the fault of any one at the
farmhouse, but which was serious enough to make Anne Catherick resolve
to leave Limmeridge immediately. It was quite useless to press Mrs.
Clements to be more explicit. She only shook her head, and said that,
for Anne's sake, she must beg and pray that no one would question her.
All she could repeat, with every appearance of being seriously agitated
herself, was that Anne must go, that she must go with her, and that the
destination to which they might both betake themselves must be kept a
secret from everybody. I spare you the recital of Mrs. Todd's
hospitable remonstrances and refusals. It ended in her driving them
both to the nearest station, more than three hours since. She tried
hard on the way to get them to speak more plainly, but without success;
and she set them down outside the station-door, so hurt and offended by
the unceremonious abruptness of their departure and their unfriendly
reluctance to place the least confidence in her, that she drove away in
anger, without so much as stopping to bid them good-bye. That is
exactly what has taken place. Search your own memory, Mr. Hartright,
and tell me if anything happened in the burial-ground yesterday evening
which can at all account for the extraordinary departure of those two
women this morning."

"I should like to account first, Miss Halcombe, for the sudden change
in Anne Catherick which alarmed them at the farmhouse, hours after she
and I had parted, and when time enough had elapsed to quiet any violent
agitation