u to imagine," continued he, "my surprise and curiosity at
this discovery. I was, of course, impatient to see the bearer of such
extraordinary tidings. This morning, inquiring for one of your
appearance at the taverns, I was, at length, informed of your arrival
yesterday in the stage; of your going out alone in the evening; of your
subsequent return; and of your early departure this morning.
Accidentally I lighted on your footsteps; and, by suitable inquiries on
the road, have finally traced you hither.

"You told my sister her husband was dead. You left with her papers that
were probably in his possession at the time of his death. I understand
from Miss Maurice that the bills belonging to her mother have just been
delivered to her. I presume you have no objection to clear up this
mystery."

"To you I am anxious to unfold every thing. At this moment, or at any
time, but the sooner the more agreeable to me, I will do it."

"This," said he, looking around him, "is no place; there is an inn, not
a hundred yards from this gate, where I have left my horse; will you go
thither?" I readily consented, and, calling for a private apartment, I
laid before this man every incident of my life connected with Welbeck
and Watson; my full, circumstantial, and explicit story appeared to
remove every doubt which he might have entertained of my integrity.

In Williams I found a plain, good man, of a temper confiding and
affectionate. My narration being finished, he expressed, by unaffected
tokens, his wonder and his grief on account of Watson's destiny. To my
inquiries, which were made with frankness and fervour, respecting his
own and his sister's condition, he said that the situation of both was
deplorable till the recovery of this property. They had been saved from
utter ruin, from beggary and a jail, only by the generosity and lenity
of his creditors, who did not suffer the suspicious circumstances
attending Watson's disappearance to outweigh former proofs of his
probity. They had never relinquished the hopes of receiving some tidings
of their kinsman.

I related what had just passed in the house of Mrs. Maurice, and
requested to know from him the history and character of this family.

"They have treated you," he answered, "exactly as any one who knew them
would have predicted. The mother is narrow, ignorant, bigoted, and
avaricious. The eldest daughter, whom you saw, resembles the old lady in
many things. Age, indeed, may render