CHAPTER VI

The address communicated by Mrs. Todd took me to a lodging house, situated in a respectable

street near the Graze Inn Road.

When I knocked, the door was opened by Mrs. Clements herself.

She did not appear to remember me, and asked what my business was.

I recall to her our meeting in Limord's Churchyard at the close of my interview there, with

the woman in white.

She seemed special here to remind her that I was the person who assisted Anne Catherick,

as Anne had herself declared, to escape the pursuit from the asylum.

This was my only claim to the confidence of Mrs. Clements.

She remembered the circumstance the moment I spoke of it, and asked me into the parlor

in the greatest anxiety to know if I had brought her any news of Anne.

It was impossible for me to tell her the whole truth, without, at the same time, entering

into particulars on the subject of the conspiracy, which it would have been dangerous to convide

to a stranger.

I could only abstain most carefully from raising any false hopes, and then explain that the

object of my visit was to discover the persons who were really responsible for Anne's disappearance.

I even added so as to exonerate myself from any after reproach of my own conscience, that

I entertained not the least hope of being able to trace her, that I believed we should never

see her alive again, and that my main interest in the affair was to bring to punishment two

men whom I suspected to be concerned in learning her away, and to choose hands, eye and some

dear friends of mine, had suffered a grievous wrong.

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