in white is a living influence in our three lives. The End
is appointed--the End is drawing us on--and Anne Catherick, dead in her
grave, points the way to it still!"

V

The story of my first inquiries in Hampshire is soon told.

My early departure from London enabled me to reach Mr. Dawson's house
in the forenoon. Our interview, so far as the object of my visit was
concerned, led to no satisfactory result.

Mr. Dawson's books certainly showed when he had resumed his attendance
on Miss Halcombe at Blackwater Park, but it was not possible to
calculate back from this date with any exactness, without such help
from Mrs. Michelson as I knew she was unable to afford. She could not
say from memory (who, in similar cases, ever can?) how many days had
elapsed between the renewal of the doctor's attendance on his patient
and the previous departure of Lady Glyde. She was almost certain of
having mentioned the circumstance of the departure to Miss Halcombe, on
the day after it happened--but then she was no more able to fix the
date of the day on which this disclosure took place, than to fix the
date of the day before, when Lady Glyde had left for London. Neither
could she calculate, with any nearer approach to exactness, the time
that had passed from the departure of her mistress, to the period when
the undated letter from Madame Fosco arrived. Lastly, as if to
complete the series of difficulties, the doctor himself, having been
ill at the time, had omitted to make his usual entry of the day of the
week and month when the gardener from Blackwater Park had called on him
to deliver Mrs. Michelson's message.

Hopeless of obtaining assistance from Mr. Dawson, I resolved to try
next if I could establish the date of Sir Percival's arrival at
Knowlesbury.

It seemed like a fatality! When I reached Knowlesbury the inn was shut
up, and bills were posted on the walls. The speculation had been a bad
one, as I was informed, ever since the time of the railway. The new
hotel at the station had gradually absorbed the business, and the old
inn (which we knew to be the inn at which Sir Percival had put up), had
been closed about two months since. The proprietor had left the town
with all his goods and chattels, and where he had gone I could not
positively ascertain from any one. The four people of whom I inquired
gave me four different accounts of his plans and projects when he left
Knowlesbury.

There were still some hours