ience to be
at home again, after the catastrophe which had befallen their family,
brooked no delay. Bribes lavishly offered to the postilions, tempted
them to go on. The carriage pursued its way, and was lost to view in the
mist. When it was seen again, it was disinterred from the bottom of a
precipice--the men, the horses, and the vehicle all crushed together
under the wreck and ruin of an avalanche.

So the three lives were mown down by death. So, in a clear sequence of
events, a woman's suicide-leap into a river had opened to Allan Armadale
the succession to the Thorpe Ambrose estates.

Who was the woman? The man who saved her life never knew. The magistrate
who remanded her, the chaplain who exhorted her, the reporter who
exhibited her in print, never knew. It was recorded of her with surprise
that, though most respectably dressed, she had nevertheless described
herself as being "in distress." She had expressed the deepest
contrition, but had persisted in giving a name which was on the face of
it a false one; in telling a commonplace story, which was manifestly
an invention; and in refusing to the last to furnish any clew to her
friends. A lady connected with a charitable institution ("interested by
her extreme elegance and beauty") had volunteered to take charge of her,
and to bring her into a better frame of mind. The first day's experience
of the penitent had been far from cheering, and the second day's
experience had been conclusive. She had left the institution by stealth;
and--though the visiting clergyman, taking a special interest in the
case, had caused special efforts to be made--all search after her, from
that time forth, had proved fruitless.

While this useless investigation (undertaken at Allan's express desire)
was in progress, the lawyers had settled the preliminary formalities
connected with the succession to the property. All that remained was
for the new master of Thorpe Ambrose to decide when he would personally
establish himself on the estate of which he was now the legal possessor.

Left necessarily to his own guidance in this matter, Allan settled
it for himself in his usual hot-headed, generous way. He positively
declined to take possession until Mrs. Blanchard and her niece (who had
been permitted thus far, as a matter of courtesy, to remain in their old
home) had recovered from the calamity that had befallen them, and were
fit to decide for themselves what their future proceedings should