She was in mourning, too, deep mourning." "Can you give me any description of this man--this Mr.Holbrook ?" "Well, no, sir: he was an ordinary kind of person to look at; might be any age between thirty and forty; not a gentleman that I should have taken a fancy to myself, as I said before; but young women are that wayward and uncertain like, there's no knowing where to have them." "Was Miss Nowell long at Wygrove before her marriage ?" "About three weeks.

She lodged with Miss Long, up the town, a friend of my daughter's.

If you'd like to ask any questions of Miss Long, our Jemima might step round there with you presently." "I should be very glad to do so," Gilbert answered quickly.

He asked several more questions; but Mr.Stoneham could give him no information, except as to the bare fact of the marriage.

Gilbert knew now that the girl he had so fondly loved and so entirely trusted was utterly lost to him; that he had been jilted cruelly and heartlessly, as he could but own to himself.