'How came you by that?'
'It was given to me, mother.'
'Who gave it you?' asked Jane, as she snatched the watch to her and turned it about. There was some enamelling on the back in blue and white.
'A gentleman gave it me. I should have told you before. Indeed, I intended to tell you yesterday, but you were in an ill-humour, and so I waited, and then the chance passed.'
'I have seen this watch before. I know it well,' said Jane in a muffled voice. Again a sense of giddiness came upon her. So much had occurred, such a rush of strange events had passed over her, such a storm of various emotions had torn her, that she hardly knew what was happening now, or was likely to happen next.
'There was a gentleman who came to me yesterday on the beach when I was picking up pebbles. He had very curled whiskers, and was sprucely dressed. He wore a fine hat and a green coat. He gave me the watch.'
'Did he say anything to you?' asked Jane in the same low, suppressed tone. She held the watch in her hand and turned it about.
'Yes, he spoke of you, mother; he continued asking about you, and what you were doing, and where you had been. He was strange in his manner.'
'Did he tell you his name?'