comfortable enough when the curtains were drawn, the lamps lighted, and
the small dinner-table wheeled in front of a blazing fire.

"I have been thinking over what you were asking me last night, sir," the
host of the White Swan began, while Gilbert was eating his fish; "and
though I can't say that I ever heard the name of Holbrook, I fancy I may
have seen the lady and gentleman you are looking for."

"Indeed!" exclaimed Gilbert eagerly, pushing away his plate, and turning
full on the landlord.

"I hope you won't let me spoil your dinner, sir; I know that sole's
fresh. I'm a pretty good judge of those things, and choose every bit of
fish that's cooked in this house. But as I was saying, sir, with regard
to this lady and gentleman, I think you said that the people you are
looking for were strangers to this part of the country, and were
occupying a farm-house that had been lent to them."

"Precisely."

"Well, sir, I remember some time in the early part of the year, I think
it must have been about March----"

"Yes, the people I am looking for would have arrived in March."

"Indeed, sir! That makes it seem likely. I remember a lady and gentleman
coming here from the railway station--we've got a station close by our
town, as you know, sir, I daresay. They wanted a fly to take them and
their luggage on somewhere--I can't for the life of me remember the name
of the place--but it was a ten-mile drive, and it was a farm--_that_ I