It all comes back to me, Mr. Pendril. Mrs.
Vanstone looked excited and anxious, the moment she heard the place
named. They went to London together the next day; they explained nothing
to their daughters, nothing to me. Mrs. Vanstone said the journey was
for family affairs. I suspected something wrong; I couldn't tell what.
Mrs. Vanstone wrote to me from London, saying that her object was to
consult a physician on the state of her health, and not to alarm her
daughters by telling them. Something in the letter rather hurt me at the
time. I thought there might be some other motive that she was keeping
from me. Did I do her wrong?"
"You did her no wrong. There was a motive which she was keeping from
you. In revealing that motive, I reveal the painful secret which brings
me to this house. All that I could do to prepare you, I have done. Let
me now tell the truth in the plainest and fewest words. When Mr. and
Mrs. Vanstone left Combe-Raven, in the March of the present year--"
Before he could complete the sentence, a sudden movement of Miss Garth's
interrupted him. She started violently, and looked round toward the
window. "Only the wind among the leaves," she said, faintly.
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