Mr. Chesterton: Where did you meet him?
Witness: At a hotel in Holborn.
Mr. Chesterton: Did you hear what happened to him after that?
Witness: After that, I was informed that he was very seriously ill with rheumatic fever, and was sent abroad to the South of France to get his health back.
Mr. Chesterton: Did Mr. Grewgious ever tell you how he came across Edwin Drood?
Witness: What he told me was this: that on Christmas Eve, 1860, he received very late at night, a letter from Miss Rosa Bud, his ward, to whom he was very much attached, and, if I may be allowed to remark, to whose mother he was very devotedly attached also. This letter was written by Miss Bud immediately following her conversation with Mr. Edwin Drood, which is in the Official Record, I think, and it entreated Mr. Grewgious, in very strong terms, to be with her in Cloisterham on Christmas Day. The letter reached Mr. Grewgious very late in the evening, and owing to the defects of the railway system, some of which, I am glad to learn, have been altered since, it was impossible for Mr. Grewgious to get to Cloisterham except by posting down, which he accordingly did.
Mr. Chesterton: There was no train after eight o’clock?
Witness: At that time no train after eight o’clock—from Victoria.
Mr. Chesterton: He posted down, and what do you understand he did when he arrived at Cloisterham?
Witness: He told me that he drove into Cloisterham somewhere about 5.30. Passing the Postern Gate, he stopped his carriage, and asked it to wait a minute.