up any thing. He would torment
her almost to death, but he would never let her go free. No, no. You do
not know him, Dr. Martin."

"Then we will try to get a divorce," I said, looking at her steadily.

"On what grounds?" she asked, looking at me as steadily.

I could not and would not enter into the question with her.

"There has been no personal cruelty on Richard's part toward her," she
resumed, with a half-smile. "It's true I locked her up for a few days
once, but he was in Paris, and had nothing to do with it. You could not
prove a single act of cruelty toward her."

Still I did not answer, though she paused and regarded me keenly.

"We were not married till we had reason to believe her dead," she
continued; "there is no harm in that. If she has forged those papers,
she is to blame. We were married openly, in our parish church; what
could be said against that?"

"Let us return to what I told you at first," I said; "if you find
Olivia, you have no more authority over her than I have. You will be
obliged to return to England alone; and I shall place her in some safe
custody. I shall ascertain precisely how the law stands, both, here and
in England. Now I advise you, for Foster's sake, make as much haste home
as you can; for he will be left without nurse or doctor while we two are
away."

She sat gnawing her under lip for some minutes, and looking as vicious
as Madam was wont to do in her worst tempers.

"You will let me make some inquiries to satisfy myself?" she said.

"Certainly," I replied; "you will only discover, as I have, that the
school was broken up a month ago, and Ellen Martineau has disappeared."

I kept no very strict watch over her during the day, for I felt sure she
would find no trace of Olivia in Noireau. At night I saw her again. She
was worn out and despondent, and declared herself quite ready to return
to Falaise by the omnibus at five o'clock in the morning. I saw her off,
and gave the driver a fee, to bring me word for what town she took her
ticket at the railway-station. When he returned in the evening, he told
me he had himself bought her one for Honfleur, and started her fairly on
her way home.

As for myself, I had spent the day in making inquiries at the offices of
the _octrois_--those local custom-houses which stand at every entrance
into a town or village in France, for the gathering of trifling,
vexatious taxes upon articles of food and merchandise. At one of these I
had lea