2. FROM THE EIGHTEENTH TO THE END OF
JANUARYFive days from the time of his departure, Manston returned from
London and Liverpool, looking very fatigued and thoughtful. He
explained to the rector and other of his acquaintance that all the
inquiries he had made at his wife's old lodgings and his own had
been totally barren of results.
But he seemed inclined to push the affair to a clear conclusion
now that he had commenced. After the lapse of another day or two he
proceeded to fulfil his promise to the rector, and advertised for
the missing woman in three of the London papers. The advertisement
was a carefully considered and even attractive effusion, calculated
to win the heart, or at least the understanding, of any woman who
had a spark of her own nature left in her.
There was
