ing. I went into
Crosber myself, though it was getting late by this time, and made
inquiries of every creature I knew in the village; but it was all no
good: no one had seen anything of the lady I was looking for."

"And the husband?" Gilbert asked again; "what of him?"

"He came next day at the usual hour, after we had been astir all night,
and the farm-labourers had been far and wide looking for Mrs. Holbrook. I
never saw any one seem so shocked and horrified as he did when we told
him how his wife had been missing for more than four-and-twenty hours. He
is not a gentleman to show his feelings much at ordinary times, and he
was quiet enough in the midst of his alarm; but he turned as white as
death, and I never saw the natural colour come back to his face all the
time he was down here."

"How long did he stay?"

"He only left yesterday. He was travelling about the country all the
time, coming back here of a night to sleep, and with the hope that we
might have heard something in his absence. The river was dragged for
three days; but, thank God, nothing came of that. Mr. Holbrook set the
Malsham police to work--not that they're much good, I think; but he
wouldn't leave a stone unturned. And now I believe he has gone to London
to get help from the police there. But O, sir, I can't make it out, and I
have lain awake, night after night thinking of it, and puzzling myself
about it, until all sorts of dreadful fancies come into my mind."

"What fancies?"

"O, sir, I scarcely dare tell you; but I loved that sweet young lady so
well, that I have been as watchful and jealous in all things, that
concerned her as if she had been my own sister. I have thought sometimes
that her husband had grown tired of her; that, however dearly he might
have loved her at first, as I suppose he did, his love had worn out
little by little, and he felt her a burden to him. What other reason
could there be for him to keep her hidden away in this dull place, month
after month, when he must have seen that her youth and beauty and gaiety
of heart were slowly vanishing away, if he had eyes to see anything?"

"But, good Heavens!" Gilbert exclaimed, startled by the sudden horror of
the idea which Ellen Carley's words suggested, "you surely do not imagine
that Marian's husband had any part in her disappearance? that he could be
capable of----"

"I don't know what to think, sir," the girl answered, interrupting him.
"I know that I have never liked