After another silence, the husband of the absent woman, turning to me again, answered me with his usual grumbling unwillingness.

“Wos Jenny here when the lady come?  Yes, she wos here when the lady come.  Wot did the lady say to her?  Well, I’ll tell you wot the lady said to her.  She said, ’You remember me as come one time to talk to you about the young lady as had been a-wisiting of you?  You remember me as give you somethink handsome for a handkercher wot she had left?’ Ah, she remembered.  So we all did.  Well, then, wos that young lady up at the house now?  No, she warn’t up at the house now.  Well, then, lookee here.  The lady was upon a journey all alone, strange as we might think it, and could she rest herself where you’re a setten for a hour or so.  Yes she could, and so she did.  Then she went—­it might be at twenty minutes past eleven, and it might be at twenty minutes past twelve; we ain’t got no watches here to know the time by, nor yet clocks.  Where did she go?  I don’t know where she go’d.  She went one way, and Jenny went another; one went right to Lunnun, and t’other went right from it.  That’s all about it.  Ask this man.  He heerd it all, and see it all.  He knows.”

The other man repeated, “That’s all about it.”

“Was the lady crying?” I inquired.

“Devil a bit,” returned the first man.  “Her shoes was the worse, and her clothes was the worse, but she warn’t—­not as I see.”

The woman sat with her arms crossed and her eyes upon the ground.  Her husband had turned his seat a little so as to face her and kept his hammer-like hand upon the table as if it were in readiness to execute his threat if she disobeyed him.

“I hope you will not object to my asking your wife,” said I, “how the lady looked.”

“Come, then!” he gruffly cried to her.  “You hear what she says.  Cut it short and tell her.”

“Bad,” replied the woman.  “Pale and exhausted.  Very bad.”

“Did she speak much?”

“Not much, but her voice was hoarse.”

She answered, looking all the while at her husband for leave.

“Was she faint?” said I.  “Did she eat or drink here?”

“Go on!” said the husband in answer to her look.  “Tell her and cut it short.”

“She had a little water, miss, and Jenny fetched her some bread and tea.  But she hardly touched it.”

“And when she went from here,” I was proceeding, when Jenny’s husband impatiently took me up.

“When she went from here, she went right away nor’ard by the high road.  Ask on the road if you doubt me, and see if it warn’t so.  Now, there’s the end.  That’s all about it.”

I glanced at my companion, and finding that he had already risen and was ready to depart, thanked them for what they had told me, and took my leave.  The woman looked full at Mr. Bucket as he went out, and he looked full at her.

“Now, Miss Summerson,” he said to me as we walked quickly away.  “They’ve got her ladyship’s watch among ’em.  That’s a positive fact.”