Nobility -- Great Britain -- Fiction; Wessex (England) -- Fiction; Women -- England -- Fiction
Alwyn applied himself body and mind to unravel the remainder of the
mystery. The story repeated to him was always the same: 'She ran away
with the curate.' A strangely circumstantial piece of intelligence was
added to this when he had pushed his inquiries a little further. There
was given him the name of a waterman at Plymouth, who had come forward at
the time that she was missed and sought for by her husband, and had
stated that he put her on board the _Western Glory_ at dusk one evening
before that vessel sailed.
After several days of search about the alleys and quays of Plymouth
Barbican, during which these impossible words, 'She ran off with the
curate,' became branded on his brain, Alwyn found this important
waterman. He was positive as to the truth of his story, still
remembering the incident well, and he described in detail the lady's
dress, as he had long ago described it to her husband, which description
corresponded in every particular with the dress worn by Emmeline on the
evening of their parting.
Before proceeding to the other side of the Atlantic to continue his
inquiries there, the puzzled and distracted Alwyn set himself to
ascertain the address of Captain Wheeler, who had commanded the _Western
Glory_ in the year of Alwyn's voyage out, and immediately wrote a letter
to him on the subject.
The only circumstances which the sailor could recollect or discover from
his papers in connection with such a story were, that a woman bearing the
name which Alwyn had mentioned as fictitious certainly did come aboard
for a voyage he made about that time; that she took a common berth among
the poorest emigrants; that she died on the voyage out, at about five
days' sail from Plymouth; that she seemed a lady in manners and
education. Why she had not applied for a first-class passage, why she
had no trunks, they could not guess, for though she had little money in
her pocket she had that about her which would have fetched it. 'We
buried her at sea,' continued the captain. 'A young parson, one of the
cabin-passengers, read the burial-service over her, I remember well.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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