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“But I don’t want to know anything about the neighborhood of Wildernsea,” interrupted Robert, with a feeble protest against the landlord’s volubility. “I want to ask you a few questions about some people who once lived here.”

The landlord bowed and smiled, with an air which implied his readiness to recite the biographies of all the inhabitants of the little seaport, if required by Mr. Audley to do so.

“How many years have you lived here?” Robert asked, taking his memorandum book from his pocket. “Will it annoy you if I make notes of your replies to my questions?”

“Not at all, sir,” replied the landlord, with a pompous enjoyment of the air of solemnity and importance which pervaded this business. “Any information which I can afford that is likely to be of ultimate value—”

“Yes, thank you,” Robert murmured, interrupting the flow of words. “You have lived here—”

“Six years, sir.”

“Since the year fifty-three?”

“Since November, in the year fifty-two, sir. I was in business at Hull prior to that time. This house was only completed in the October before I entered it.”

“Do you remember a lieutenant in the navy, on half-pay, I believe, at that time, called Maldon?”

“Captain Maldon, sir?”

“Yes, commonly called Captain Maldon. I see you do remember him.”

“Yes, sir. Captain Maldon was one of our best customers. He used to spend his evenings in this very room, though the walls were damp at that time, and we weren’t able to paper the place for nearly a twelvemonth afterward. His daughter married a young officer that came here with his regiment, at Christmas time in fifty-two. They were married here, sir, and they traveled on the Continent for six months, and came back here again. But the gentleman ran away to Australia, and left the lady, a week or two after her baby was born. The business made quite a sensation in Wildernsea, sir, and Mrs.—Mrs.—I forgot the name—”

“Mrs. Talboys,” suggested Robert.

“To be sure, sir, Mrs. Talboys. Mrs. Talboys was very much pitied by the Wildernsea folks, sir, I was going to say, for she was very pretty, and had such nice winning ways that she was a favorite with everybody who knew her.”

“Can you tell me how long Mr. Maldon and his daughter remained at Wildernsea after Mr. Talboys left them?” Robert asked.

“Well—no, sir,” answered the landlord, after a few moments’ deliberation. “I can’t say exactly how long it was. I know Mr. Maldon used to sit here in this very parlor, and tell people how badly his daughter had been treated, and how he’d been deceived by a young man he’d put so much confidence in; but I can’t say how long it was before he left Wildernsea. But Mrs. Barkamb could tell you, sir,” added the landlord, briskly.

“Mrs. Barkamb.”

“Yes, Mrs. Barkamb is the person who owns No. 17 North Cottages, the house in which Mr. Maldon and his daughter lived. She’s a nice, civil spoken, motherly woman, sir, and I’m sure she’ll tell you anything you may want to know.”

“Thank you, I will call upon Mrs. Barkamb to-morrow. Stay—one more question. Should you recognize Mrs. Talboys if you were to see her?”

“Certainly, sir. As sure as I should recognize one of my own daughters.”

Robert Audley wrote Mrs. Barkamb’s address in his pocket-book, ate his solitary dinner, drank a couple of glasses of sherry, smoked a cigar, and then retired to the apartment in which a fire had been lighted for his comfort.

He soon fell asleep, worn out with the fatigue of hurrying from place to place during the last two days; but his slumber was not a heavy one, and he heard the disconsolate moaning of the wind upon the sandy wastes, and the long waves rolling in monotonously upon the flat shore. Mingling with these dismal sounds, the melancholy thoughts engendered by his joyless journey repeated themselves in never-varying succession in the chaos of his slumbering brain, and made themselves into visions of things that never had been and never could be upon this earth, but which had some vague relation to real events remembered by the sleeper.