who the woman is, and of what her
past history in connection with us can be, as I am myself. But they
are also, in widely different ways, rather nervous and sensitive; and
you would only fidget one and alarm the other to no purpose. As for
myself, I am all aflame with curiosity, and I devote my whole energies
to the business of discovery from this moment. When my mother came
here, after her second marriage, she certainly established the village
school just as it exists at the present time. But the old teachers are
all dead, or gone elsewhere; and no enlightenment is to be hoped for
from that quarter. The only other alternative I can think of----"

At this point we were interrupted by the entrance of the servant, with
a message from Mr. Fairlie, intimating that he would be glad to see me,
as soon as I had done breakfast.

"Wait in the hall," said Miss Halcombe, answering the servant for me,
in her quick, ready way. "Mr. Hartright will come out directly. I was
about to say," she went on, addressing me again, "that my sister and I
have a large collection of my mother's letters, addressed to my father
and to hers. In the absence of any other means of getting information,
I will pass the morning in looking over my mother's correspondence with
Mr. Fairlie. He was fond of London, and was constantly away from his
country home; and she was accustomed, at such times, to write and
report to him how things went on at Limmeridge. Her letters are full
of references to the school in which she took so strong an interest;
and I think it more than likely that I may have discovered something
when we meet again. The luncheon hour is two, Mr. Hartright. I shall
have the pleasure of introducing you to my sister by that time, and we
will occupy the afternoon in driving round the neighbourhood and
showing you all our pet points of view. Till two o'clock, then,
farewell."

She nodded to me with the lively grace, the delightful refinement of
familiarity, which characterised all that she did and all that she
said; and disappeared by a door at the lower end of the room. As soon
as she had left me, I turned my steps towards the hall, and followed
the servant, on my way, for the first time, to the presence of Mr.
Fairlie.

VII

My conductor led me upstairs into a passage which took us back to the
bedchamber in which I had slept during the past night; and opening the
door next to it, begged me to look in.

"I have my master'