It was my lot to be forgotten.
"I hastened to London, to my wife's old home, and learnt that the family no longer lived there.

Where had they gone to?
The maid who opened the door could not tell me--she did not know.

At my request she went for her mistress.

The lady of the house came down to me, a tall slender woman, indifferent, but well-bred enough to be polite.

She had taken the house from the Bruntons, she said.