Throughout the letters there was but one positive clue to the identification of the writers. That lay in the address given by the lady, at Rouen. She was staying in that city with friends—relations perhaps. It was just possible that Lucius might be so fortunate as to find some of these people still resident in the same city. The date of the letters was only fourteen years ago, and in some slow tranquil lives fourteen years make but little difference. The hair grows a shade grayer; the favourite old dog or the familiar household cat dies, and is replaced by a younger and less cherished animal; the ancient asthmatic canary is found dead in his cage; the old Sunday silk gown, which has been worn with honour for a decade, is converted into a petticoat; the old husband takes to stronger spectacles, and shortens his constitutional walk by the length of a couple of streets; the old wife dies perhaps, and is buried and feebly mourned for a little while; and with such faint ripples of change the slow dull river glides on to the eternal ocean. Lucius was hopeful that, in a quiet by-street in the city of Rouen, he might find things very much as they had been fourteen years ago. He made up his mind to start for that city on the following night. A train leaving London-bridge at dusk would take him to Newhaven; he would reach Dieppe by six o’clock next morning, and Rouen by breakfast time. Once there he knew not how long his researches might detain him; but he could so arrange his affairs, with the help of a good-natured brother-medico in the Shadrack district, as to absent himself for a few days without inconvenience to his numerous patients. That one dear patient whose safety was so near to his heart was now out of danger. The fever was past, and the only symptom which now gave him cause for anxiety was a deep melancholy, as of a mind overburdened with care, or weighed down by some painful secret. ‘Could I but dare to speak openly I might dispel some of those apprehensions which now disturb her,’ thought Lucius; ‘but I cannot venture to do that until she is better able to bear the shock of a great surprise, and until I am able to confirm my statements.’