"No more than the babe unborn, sir. He was a stranger in this place, was
only here long enough to get the license for his marriage. I should take
him to be a gentleman; but he wasn't a pleasant person to speak
to--rather stand-off-ish in his manners. He wasn't the sort of man I
should have chosen if I'd been a pretty young woman like Miss Nowell; but
there's no accounting for taste, and she seemed uncommonly fond of him. I
never saw any one more agitated than she was when they were married. She
was crying in a quiet way all through the service, and when it was over
she fainted dead-off. I daresay it did seem hard to her to be married
like that, without so much as a friend to give her away. She was in
mourning, too, deep mourning."

"Can you give me any description of this man--this Mr. Holbrook?"

"Well, no, sir: he was an ordinary kind of person to look at; might be
any age between thirty and forty; not a gentleman that I should have
taken a fancy to myself, as I said before; but young women are that
wayward and uncertain like, there's no knowing where to have them."

"Was Miss Nowell long at Wygrove before her marriage?"

"About three weeks. She lodged with Miss Long, up the town, a friend of
my daughter's. If you'd like to ask any questions of Miss Long, our
Jemima might step round there with you presently."

"I should be very glad to do so," Gilbert answered quickly. He asked
several more questions; but Mr. Stoneham could give him no information,
except as to the bare fact of the marriage. Gilbert knew now that the
girl he had so fondly loved and so entirely trusted was utterly lost to