She mentioned it in her last letter to me." "I didn't know you corresponded with her," cried the dowager, her tones rather shrill.
"Not correspond with Miss Ashton!" he repeated.

"Of course I do." The old dowager had a fit of choking: something had gone the wrong way, she said.

Lord Hartledon resumed.
"It is an awful shame of those seaside lodging-house people! Did you hear the particulars, Maude?
After the Ashtons concluded their visit in Wales, they went for a fortnight to the seaside, on their way home, taking lodgings.

Some days after they had been settled in the rooms they discovered that some fever was in the house; a family who occupied another set of apartments being ill with it, and had been ill before the Ashtons went in.

Dr.Ashton told the landlady what he thought of her conduct, and then they left the house for home.