Had any fatal accident happened to her and her companion?--or were
Honoria Eversleigh and Victor Carrington two guilty creatures, who had
abandoned themselves to the folly and madness of a wicked attachment,
and had fled together, reckless alike of reputation and fortune?
He tried to believe that this latter chance was beyond the region of
possibility; but horrible suspicions racked his brain as he paced to
and fro, waiting for the issue of the search that was being made.
Better that he should be told that his wife had been found lying dead
upon the hard, cruel road, than that he should hear that she had left
him for another; a false and degraded creature!
"Why did she trust herself to the companionship of this man?" he asked
himself. "Why did she disgrace herself by leaving her guests in the
company of a young man who ought to be little more than a stranger to
her? She is no ignorant or foolish girl; she has shown herself able to
hold her own in the most trying positions. What madness could have
possessed her, that she should bring disgrace upon herself and me by
such conduct as this?"
The grooms came back after a search that had been utterly in vain. No
trace of the missing lady had been discovered. Inquiries had been made
everywhere along the road, but without result. No gig had been seen to
pass between the neighbourhood of the Wizard's Cave and Raynham Castle.
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