"'What is the name of the——?' I hesitatingly asked.
"'Miss Barmingfield, sir,' said the man, 'is the name of the corpse. Poor young lady, it was as well as you and me three days ago, and was a coming down to Chichester to spend a month with its mother; when, just in a minute, it was taken ill at Ripley, and out it went for all the world like the snuff of a candle.'
"'At Ripley!' said I; 'did she live at Ripley?'
"'No, sir, she didn't,' said the undertaker; 'you'll excuse me—she died there.'
"'But she must have lived there first, I presume,' said I, rather angrily; for a joker hates to be joked upon.
"'A very short time indeed,' said the jolly undertaker. 'She arrived at the Talbot the day before yesterday, about twelve o'clock, in high health, and by six at night, as I said afore, she was a corpse.'
"'At the Talbot!' said I. 'And are you bringing the body from the Talbot now?'
"'Yes, sir,' said the man; 'on our way to Chichester. We could not move her, poor dear young lady, afore, because I couldn't get things ready till this morning.'
"'Pray,' said I, with a degree of agitation which evidently astonished my companion in the crape, 'where—in what part of the Talbot at Ripley did the young lady die?'
"'In Number 3; that 'ere double-bedded room right over the gateway,' said the man. 'We only packed her up this morning.'