“Indeed!” exclaimed Gilbert eagerly, pushing away his plate, and turning full on the landlord.

“I hope you won’t let me spoil your dinner, sir; I know that sole’s fresh.  I’m a pretty good judge of those things, and choose every bit of fish that’s cooked in this house.  But as I was saying, sir, with regard to this lady and gentleman, I think you said that the people you are looking for were strangers to this part of the country, and were occupying a farm-house that had been lent to them.”

“Precisely.”

“Well, sir, I remember some time in the early part of the year, I think it must have been about March——­”

“Yes, the people I am looking for would have arrived in March.”

“Indeed, sir!  That makes it seem likely.  I remember a lady and gentleman coming here from the railway station—­we’ve got a station close by our town, as you know, sir, I daresay.  They wanted a fly to take them and their luggage on somewhere—­I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the place—­but it was a ten-mile drive, and it was a farm—­that I could swear to—­Something Farm.  If it had been a place I’d known, I think I should have remembered the name.”

“Can I see the man who drove them?” Gilbert asked quickly.

“The young man that drove them, sir, has left me, and has left these parts a month come next Tuesday.  Where he has gone is more than I can tell you.  He was very good with horses; but he turned out badly, cheated me up hill and down dale, as you may say—­though what hills and dales have got to do with it is more than I can tell—­and I was obliged to get rid of him.”

“That’s provoking.  But if the people I want are anywhere within ten miles of this place, I don’t suppose I should be long finding them.  Yet the mere fact of two strangers coming here, and going on to some place called a farm, seems very slight ground to go upon.  The month certainly corresponds with the time at which Mr. and Mrs. Holbrook came to Hampshire.  Did you take any particular notice of them?”

“I took particular notice of the lady.  She was as pretty a woman as ever I set eyes upon—­quite a girl.  I noticed that the gentleman was very careful and tender with her when he put her into the carriage, wrapping her up, and so on.  He looked a good deal older than her, and I didn’t much like his looks altogether.”

“Could you describe him?”

“Well—­no, sir.  The time was short, and he was wrapped up a good deal; the collar of his overcoat turned up, and a scarf round his neck.  He had dark eyes, I remember, and rather a stern look in them.”