His preparations were soon made. Old Cuthbert performed the duties of valet. And punctually at twelve o'clock the viscount took leave of his evil demon and her chaperon and departed for Banff, where he took the coach to Aberdeen, at which place he arrived in time to catch the night train up to London. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE COUNTESS OF HURSTMONCEUX. The beauteous woe that charms like faded light, The cheek so pure that knows no youthful bloom, Well suiteth her dark brow and forehead white, And in the sad endurance of her eye Is all that love believes of woman's majesty. --_Elliott_. In the meantime Lady Vincent reached Banff. She drove at once to the principal hotel, where she engaged a room into which her luggage was carried. With a gratuity to the coachman who had driven her she dismissed the carriage, which returned immediately to the castle. Then she ordered a fly and drove to the police station--at that time a mean little stone edifice, exceedingly repulsive without and excessively filthy within. A crowd of disreputable-looking ragamuffins of both sexes and all ages obstructed the entrance. Surely it was a revolting scene to one of Lady Vincent's fastidious nature and refined habits. But she did not shrink from her duty. She made her way through this disgusting assemblage, and found just within the door a policeman, to whom she said: "I wish, if you please, to see your inspector." "You will have to wait in the outer room, then, miss, because he is engaged now," replied the man curtly; for the beauty of the woman, the costliness of her apparel, and the fact of her having come unattended to a place like that, filled the mind of the officer with evil suspicions concerning her. He opened a door on the left and let the visitor pass into the anteroom--a wretched stone hall, whose floor was carpeted with dirt and whose windows were curtained with cobwebs. A bench ran along the wall at one end, on which sat several forlorn, stupefied, or desperate-looking individuals waiting their turn to be examined. Two or three policemen, walking up and down, kept these persons in custody. Claudia could not sit down among them; she walked to one of the windows and looked out. She waited there some time, while one after another the prisoners were taken in and examined. Some returned from examination free, and walked out unattended and wearing satisfied countenances. Others came back in the custody of policemen and with downcast looks. It seemed long before the inspector was at leisure to receive her. At length, however, the policeman she had seen at the door came up and said: "Now, miss!" Claudia arose and followed him to another room--a small, carpeted office, where Inspector Murray was seated at a desk.