tents, sealed it, wrote the address, and handed it
back to her in silence. I never saw anything more gracefully and more
becomingly done in my life.

"You insist on my posting this letter, Sir Percival?" said Miss
Halcombe.

"I beg you will post it," he answered. "And now that it is written and
sealed up, allow me to ask one or two last questions about the unhappy
woman to whom it refers. I have read the communication which Mr.
Gilmore kindly addressed to my solicitor, describing the circumstances
under which the writer of the anonymous letter was identified. But
there are certain points to which that statement does not refer. Did
Anne Catherick see Miss Fairlie?"

"Certainly not," replied Miss Halcombe.

"Did she see you?"

"No."

"She saw nobody from the house then, except a certain Mr. Hartright,
who accidentally met with her in the churchyard here?"

"Nobody else."

"Mr. Hartright was employed at Limmeridge as a drawing-master, I
believe? Is he a member of one of the Water-Colour Societies?"

"I believe he is," answered Miss Halcombe.

He paused for a moment, as if he was thinking over the last answer, and
then added--

"Did you find out where Anne Catherick was living, when she was in this
neighbourhood?"

"Yes. At a farm on the moor, called Todd's Corner."

"It is a duty we all owe to the poor creature herself to trace her,"
continued Sir Percival. "She may have said something at Todd's Corner
which may help us to find her. I will go there and make inquiries on
the chance. In the meantime, as I cannot prevail on myself to discuss
this painful subject with Miss Fairlie, may I beg, Miss Halcombe, that
you will kindly undertake to give her the necessary explanation,
deferring it of course until you have received the reply to that note."

Miss Halcombe promised to comply with his request. He thanked her,
nodded pleasantly, and left us, to go and establish himself in his own
room. As he opened the door the cross-grained greyhound poked out her
sharp muzzle from under the sofa, and barked and snapped at him.

"A good morning's work, Miss Halcombe," I said, as soon as we were
alone. "Here is an anxious day well ended already."

"Yes," she answered; "no doubt. I am very glad your mind is satisfied."

"My mind! Surely, with that note in your hand, your mind is at ease
too?"

"Oh yes--how can it be otherwise? I know the thing could not be," she
went on, speaking more to herself than to m