his
anxiety magnified till he felt convinced that the girl whom he loved
with all his heart was going to throw herself into the arms of a
thorough scamp. Could he not do something, if not for his own sake,
then for hers? Might it not be possible for him to deliver her from
her danger? What, if he should discover some great iniquity;--would
she not then in her gratitude be softened towards him? It was on
the cards that this reprobate was married already, and was about
to commit bigamy. It was quite probable that such a man should be
deeply in debt. As for the fortune that had been left to him, Mr.
Chamberlaine had already ascertained that that amounted to nothing.
It had been consumed to the last shilling in paying the joint debts
of the father and son. Men such as Mr. Chamberlaine have sources of
information which are marvellous to the minds of those who are more
secluded, and not the less marvellous because the information is
invariably false. Gilmore in this way almost came to a conviction
that Mary Lowther was about to sacrifice herself to a man utterly
unworthy of her, and he taught himself, not to think,--but to believe
it to be possible that he might save her. Those who knew him would
have said that he was the last man in the world to be carried away
by a romantic notion;--but he had his own idea of romance as plainly
developed in his mind as was ever the case with a knight of old, who
went forth for the relief of a distressed damsel. If he could do
anything towards saving her, he would do it, or try to do it, though
he should be brought to ruin in the attempt. Might it not be that at
last he would have the reward which other knights always attained?
The chance in his favour was doubtless small, but the world was
nothing to him without this chance.

He had never been at Loring before, but he had learned the way. He
went to Chippenham and Swindon, and then by the train to Loring. He
had no very definite plan formed for himself. He rather thought that
he would call at Miss Marrable's house,--call if possible when Mary
Lowther was not there,--and learn from the elder lady something of
the facts of the case. He had been well aware for many weeks past,
from early days in the summer, that old Miss Marrable had been in
favour of his claim. He had heard too that there had been family
quarrels among the Marrables, and a word had been dropped in his
hearing by Mrs. Fenwick, which had implied that Miss Marrable was
by no m