'Yes, she certainly ran away. She met the curate in the shrubbery
about a couple of months after her marriage with the Duke. There
were folks who saw the meeting and heard some words of their talk.
They arranged to go, and she sailed from Plymouth with him a day or
two afterward.'
'That's not true.'
'Then 'tis the queerest lie ever told by man. Her father believed
and knew to his dying day that she went with him; and so did the
Duke, and everybody about here. Ay, there was a fine upset about it
at the time. The Duke traced her to Plymouth.'
'Traced her to Plymouth?'
'He traced her to Plymouth, and set on his spies; and they found
that she went to the shipping-office, and inquired if Mr. Alwyn Hill
had entered his name as passenger by the Western Glory; and when she
found that he had, she booked herself for the same ship, but not in
her real name. When the vessel had sailed a letter reached the Duke
from her, telling him what she had done. She never came back here
again. His Grace lived by himself a number of years, and married
this lady only twelve months before he died.'
Alwyn was in a state of indescribable bewilderment. But, unmanned
as he was, he called the next day on the, to him, spurious Duchess
of Hamptonshire. At first she was alarmed at his statement, then
cold, then she was won over by his condition to give confidence for
confidence. She showed him a letter which had been found among the
papers of the late Duke, corroborating what Alwyn's informant had
detailed.
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