done--what sacrifice of my
own pride that I would not have happily made to win her! O my darling,
even in your desertion of me you might have trusted me better than this!
You would have found me fond and faithful through every trial, your
friend in spite of every wrong."

He knelt down by the grave, and pressed his lips to the granite on which
George Sedgewick's name was chiselled.

"I owe it to the dead to discover her fate," he said to himself, as he
rose from that reverent attitude. "I owe it to the dead to penetrate the
secret of her new life, to assure myself that she is happy, and has
fallen under no fatal influence."

The Listers were still abroad, and Gilbert was very glad that it was so.
It would have excruciated him to hear his sister's comments on Marian's
conduct, and to perceive the suppressed exultation with which she would
most likely have discussed this unhappy termination to an engagement
which had been entered on in utter disregard of her counsel.

CHAPTER IX.

JOHN SALTRAM'S ADVICE.

Mr. Fenton discovered the Bruce family in Boundary-road, St. John's-wood,
after a good deal of trouble. But they could tell him nothing of their
dear friend Miss Nowell, of whom they spoke with the warmest regard. They
had never seen her since they had left the school at Lidford, where they
had been boarders, and she a daily pupil. They had not even heard of
Captain Sedgewick's death.

Gilbert asked these young ladies if they knew of any other acquaintance
of Marian's living in or near London. They both answered promptly in the
negative. The school was a small one, and they had been the only pupils
who came from town; nor had they ever heard Marian speak of any London
friends.

Thus ended Mr. Fenton's inquiries in this direction, leaving him no wiser
than when he left Lidford. He had now exhausted every possible channel by
which he might obtain information. The ground lay open before him, and
there was nothing left for him but publicity. He took an advertisement to
the _Times_ office that afternoon, and paid for six insertions in the
second column:--

"Miss MARIAN NOWELL, late of Lidford, Midlandshire, is requested
to communicate immediately with G.F., Post-office, Wigmore-street,
to whom her silence has caused extreme anxiety. She may rely upon
the advertiser's friendship and fidelity under all possible
circumstances."

Gilbert felt a little more hopeful after having done this. H