eard of; the replies of the magistrate
were unsatisfactory. "And do you think, my lord, that Mr. Maltravers has
never to this day ascertained what became of the poor young woman?"

"Why, let me see,--what was her name?"

The magistrate thought a moment, and replied, "Alice Darvil."

"Alice!" exclaimed Vargrave. "Alice!"--aware that such was the Christian
name of his uncle's wife, and now almost convinced of the truth of his
first vague suspicion.

"You seem to know the name?"

"Of Alice; yes--but not Darvil. No, no; I believe he has never heard of
the girl to this hour. Nor you either?"

"I have not. One little circumstance related to me by Mr. Hobbs, your
surveyor's father, gave me some uneasiness. About two years after the
young woman disappeared, a girl, of very humble dress and appearance,
stopped at the gate of Hobbs' Lodge, and asked earnestly for Mr. Butler.
On hearing he was gone, she turned away, and was seen no more. It seems
that this girl had an infant in her arms--which rather shocked
the propriety of Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs. The old gentleman told me the
circumstance a few days after it happened, and I caused inquiry to be
made for the stranger; but she could not be discovered. I thought at
first this possibly might be the lost Alice; but I learned that, during
his stay at the cottage, your friend--despite his error, which we will
not stop to excuse--had exercised so generous and wide a charity amongst
the poor in the town and neighbourhood, that it was a more probable
supposition of the two that the girl belonged to some family he
had formerly relieved, and her visit was that of a mendicant, not a
mistress. Accordingly, after much consideration, I resolved not to
mention the circumstances to Mr. Maltravers, when he wrote to me on his
return from the Continent. A considerable time had then elapsed since
the girl had applied to Mr. Hobbs; all trace of her was lost; the
incident might open wounds that time must have nearly healed, might give
false hopes--or, what was worse, occasion a fresh and unfounded remorse
at the idea of Alice's destitution; it would, in fact, do no good, and
might occasion unnecessary pain. I therefore suppressed all mention of
it."

"You did right: and so the poor girl had an infant in her arms?--humph!
What sort of looking person was this Alice Darvil,--pretty, of course?"

"I never saw her; and none but the persons employed in the premises knew
her by sight; they described her