"My name is Dodd," said the lady, motioning Mr. Fenton to a chair, "Miss
Letitia Dodd. I had the pleasure of seeing you very often during your
visits next door. I was not on visiting terms with Captain Sedgewick and
Miss Nowell, although we bowed to each other out of doors. I am only a
tradesman's daughter--indeed my brother is now carrying on business as a
butcher in Fairleigh--and of course I am quite aware of the difference in
our positions. I am the last person to intrude myself upon my superiors."

"If you will be so kind as to tell me where they have gone?" Gilbert
asked, eager to stop this formal statement of Miss Dodd's social
standing.

"Where _they_ have gone!" she repeated. "Dear, dear! Then you do not
know----"

"I do not know what?"

"Of Captain Sedgewick's death."

"Good God! My dear old friend! When did he die?"

"At the beginning of the year. It was very sudden--a fit of apoplexy. He
was seized in the night, poor dear gentleman, and it was only discovered
when the servant went to call him in the morning. He only lived two days
after the seizure; and never spoke again."

"And Miss Nowell--what made her leave the cottage? She is still at
Lidford, I suppose?"