"And he could do nothing?"
"Nothing, except what I have told you."
The young man thrust his hand into his breast to still the cruel beating of his heart. A sudden terror had taken possession of him,––a horrible dread that he should never look upon his young wife's face again. For some minutes there was a dead silence in the room, only broken once or twice by the falling of some ashes on the hearth. Captain Arundel sat with his face hidden behind his hand. Olivia still stood as she had stood when her cousin entered the room, erect and gloomy, by the old–fashioned chimney–piece.
"There was something in that placard," the soldier said at last, in a hoarse, altered voice,––"there was something about my wife having been seen last by the water–side. Who saw her there?"
"Mr. Weston, a surgeon of Kemberling,––Paul Marchmont's brother–in–law."
"Was she seen by no one else?"
"Yes; she was seen at about the same time––a little sooner or later, we don't know which––by one of Farmer Pollard's men."
"And she has never been seen since?"
"Never; that is to say, we can hear of no one who has seen her."
"At what time in the day was she seen by this Mr. Weston?"