I'll go down, and speak to him at the door."
He went down when the messenger came, and sent him first to purchase
pen, ink, and paper. The man's next errand dispatched him to make
inquiries for a person who could provide for deadening the sound of
passing wheels in the street by laying down tan before the house in the
usual way. This object accomplished, the messenger received two letters
to post. The first was addressed to Kirke's brother-in-law. It told him,
in few and plain words, what had happened; and left him to break the
news to his wife as he thought best. The second letter was directed to
the landlord of the Aldborough Hotel. Magdalen's assumed name at North
Shingles was the only name by which Kirke knew her; and the one chance
of tracing her relatives that he could discern was the chance of
discovering her reputed uncle and aunt by means of inquiries starting
from Aldborough.
Toward the close of the afternoon a decent middle-aged woman came to the
house, with a letter from Mr. Merrick. She was well known to the doctor
as a trustworthy and careful person, who had nursed his own wife; and
she would be assisted, from time to time, by a lady who was a member of
a religious Sisterhood in the district, and whose compassionate interest
had been warmly aroused in the case.
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