He thereupon stood still while the other ascended the slope.

At the bottom he looked back dubiously.

Giles would no longer remain when he was so evidently desired to leave, and returned through the boughs to Hintock.
He suspected that this man, who seemed so distressed and melancholy, might be that lover and persistent wooer of Mrs.Charmond whom he had heard so frequently spoken of, and whom it was said she had treated cavalierly.

But he received no confirmation of his suspicion beyond a report which reached him a few days later that a gentleman had called up the servants who were taking care of Hintock House at an hour past midnight; and on learning that Mrs.Charmond, though returned from abroad, was as yet in London, he had sworn bitterly, and gone away without leaving a card or any trace of himself.
The girls who related the story added that he sighed three times before he swore, but this part of the narrative was not corroborated.

Anyhow, such a gentleman had driven away from the hotel at Sherton next day in a carriage hired at that inn..