At six o’clock that bright summer’s evening my wife went out into the garden to call the children.  Not finding them, she went all round the place in her search till she came to the empty stable; thinking they might have run in there to play, she pushed open the door; there, standing in the darkest corner, she saw Mrs M——.  My wife was surprised to see her, certainly; for she did not expect her return so soon; but, oddly enough, it did not strike her as being singular to see her there.  Vexed as she had felt with her all day for going, and rather glad, in her woman’s way, to have something entirely different from the genuine casus belli to hang a retort upon, my wife said:  “Well, Harriet, I should have thought another dress would have done quite as well for your picnic as that best black silk you have on.”  My wife was the elder of the twain, and had always assumed a little of the air of counsellor to her sister.  Black silks were thought a great deal more of at that time than they are just now, and silk of any kind was held particularly inconsistent wear for Wesleyan Methodists, to which denomination we belonged.

Receiving no answer, my wife said:  “Oh, well, Harriet, if you can’t take a word of reproof without being sulky, I’ll leave you to yourself”; and then she came into the house to tell me the party had returned and that she had seen her sister in the stable, not in the best of tempers.  At the moment it did not seem extraordinary to me that my wife should have met her sister in the stable.

I waited indoors some time, expecting them to return my horse.  Mrs M——­ was my neighbour, and, being always on most friendly terms, I wondered that none of the party had come in to tell us about the day’s pleasure.  I thought I would just run in and see how they had got on.  To my great surprise the servant told me they had not returned.  I began, then, to feel anxiety about the result.  My wife, however, having seen Harriet in the stable, refused to believe the servant’s assertion; and said there was no doubt of their return, but that they had probably left word to say they were not come back, in order to offer a plausible excuse for taking a further drive, and detaining my horse for another hour or so.

At eleven o’clock Mr Pinnock, my brother-in-law, who had been one of the party, came in, apparently much agitated.  As soon as she saw him, and before he had time to speak, my wife seemed to know what he had to say.

“What is the matter?” she said; “something has happened to Harriet, I know!”

“Yes” replied Mr Pinnock; “if you wish to see her alive, you must come with me directly to Goodwood.”

From what he said it appeared that one of the ponies had never been properly broken in; that the man from whom the turn-out was hired for the day had cautioned Mrs M——­ respecting it before they started; and that he had lent it reluctantly, being the only pony to match in the stable at the time, and would not have lent it at all had he not known Mrs M——­ to be a remarkably good whip.