“Did she ever tell you anything about Mr. Holbrook—­his position or profession? how long she had known him? how and where they had first met?”

“No, sir.  She told me once that he was not rich; I think that is about all she ever said of him, except when she spoke of his influence over her, and her trust in him.”

“Have you any idea where they were going to live after their marriage?”

“I cannot tell you the name of the place.  Miss Nowell said that a friend of Mr. Holbrook’s was going to lend him an old farm-house in a very pretty part of the country.  It would be very lonely, she said, and her husband would have sometimes to leave her to attend to his business in London; but she would not mind that.  ’Some day, I daresay, he will let me live in London with him,’ she said; ’but I don’t like to ask him that yet.’”

“Did she drop no hint as to the whereabouts of this place to which they were going?”

“It was somewhere in Hampshire; that is all I can remember.”

“I would give a great deal to know more,” Gilbert said with a sigh.  “In what manner did this Mr. Holbrook impress you?  You were interested in the young lady, and would therefore naturally be interested in her lover.  Did he strike you as worthy of her?”

“I cannot say that he did, sir,” Miss Long answered doubtfully.  “I could see that he had great power over her, though his manner to her was always very gentle; but I cannot say that I took to him myself.  I daresay he is a very clever man; but he had a cold proud way that kept one at a distance from him, and I seemed to know no more of him at the last than I had known on the first day I saw him.  I believe he loved Miss Nowell, and that’s about all the good I do believe of him.”

After this, there was no more to be asked of Miss Long; so Gilbert thanked her for her civility, and bade good evening at once to her and to Miss Stoneham.  There was time for him to catch the last coach to Grangewick station.  He determined upon going from Grangewick to Lidford, instead of returning to London.  He wanted, if possible, to find out something more about this man Holbrook, who must surely have been known to some one at Lidford during his secret courtship of Marian Nowell.

He wasted two days at Lidford, making inquiries on this subject, in as quiet a manner as possible and in every imaginable quarter; but without the slightest result.  No one either at Lidford or Fairleigh had ever heard of Mr. Holbrook.

Gilbert’s last inquiries were made in a singular direction.  After exhausting every likely channel of information, he had a few hours left before the departure of the fast train by which he had determined to return to London; and this leisure he devoted to a visit to Heatherly Park, in the chance of finding Sir David Forster at home.  It was just possible that Mr. Holbrook might be one of Sir David’s innumerable bachelor acquaintances.