Dundas or any
one else in the queer, cramped handwriting which experience had taught
Mrs. Pepper, post-mistress as well as the keeper of the village general
shop, carried the sentiments of Leam Dundas. This caused a curious
little buzz in the lower parts of the hive when Mrs. Pepper mentioned
it to her friends and gossips; but as no fire can live without fresh
fuel, and as nothing whatever was heard of Leam to stimulate curiosity
or set new tales afloat, by degrees her name dropped out of the daily
discussions of the place, and she was no longer interesting, because she
had become used up and talked out.
Only, Mr. Gryce wrote more frequently than had been his wont to Miss
Gryce at Windy Brow in Cumberland--conjectured to be his sister; and
only, Alick never ceased in his attempts to discover where his lost
queen was hidden, though these attempts had hitherto been hopelessly
baffled, partly because he had not an inch of foothold whence to make
his first spring, nor the thinnest clew to tell him which path to take.
And as a purchaser, the final cause of whose existence seemed to have
been the unquestioning possession of Ford House, came suddenly on the
scene and took the whole thing as it stood, Sebastian and his wife left
the place, taking Fina with them, and migrated to Paris to finish their
interrupted honeymoon. So now it was supposed that the last link
connecting Leam with North Aston was broken, and that she was indeed
blotted out and for ever.
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