A few more days sufficed to complete Clem's preparations. Titus Vallance came down from London, and was duly installed as his _locum tenens_. Neither to his brother nor to John Brancker did he afford the faintest hint that any object other than the need for change and rest was taking him from home. Next morning he set out for the North. By the last post of the following day a letter from him reached Hermia. She was surprised and delighted, not having expected one till next morning. She hurried to her room, broke the seal, and kissed the enclosure again and again before reading a single word. After a few lines devoted to those sweet nothings which lovers delight in when they write to each other, the letter went on as follows: "And now, dear, prepare yourself for what will be to you both a surprise and a disappointment. Mr. Hodgson is dead! "It was late yesterday afternoon when I reached Stavering. It is a town of but a few thousand inhabitants, and on inquiry I was told that the one good hotel in the place is the 'King's Arms.' As you will see by the heading of this letter, it is from there that I am now writing to you. "By the time I had done dinner it was nearly dark, and it would evidently have been useless to set about anything till the morrow. While turning matters over in my mind, with no company but my cigar, it struck me that it might not be a bad plan to put a few questions to the landlord of the hotel. If Mr. Hodgson were at all known in the town he would be pretty sure to be in a position to supply me with his address and perhaps, also, to give me some further information about him, which might or might not prove of service to me. "Accordingly, after breakfast this morning, I sought an interview with mine host--a chatty, communicative middle-aged man, who has lived in Stavering nearly all his life. It was from him I learned the fact of Mr. Hodgson's demise; but, in order to make sure that his Mr. Hodgson was the same as ours, I showed him my pen-and-ink sketch, which I had taken care to bring with me. He recognized the likeness in a moment. "It would appear that Mr. Hodgson was a man of high standing in his profession, and the legal adviser to a number of the first families in Stavering and its neighborhood. Further inquiry elicited the information that he died within a week of the date of his last visit to Ashdown, which may possibly serve to account for the fact that Mr. Brancker's letter to him has remained unanswered. Mr. Hodgson had no partner in his business, nor, so far as is known to my landlord, has anyone been appointed as his successor. "I must confess that I am taken very considerably aback by what has just been told me, and that for the present I am altogether nonplussed as to what my next step ought to be. However, I do not despair. Difficulties are made to be encountered and, if possible, overcome. In any case, I will write you again in the course of to-morrow." CHAPTER XXXII. CORRESPONDENCE.