He could not see me; I was ill in
bed. He saw my mother, who at once suggested that Winifred should be
taken to Wales, to an aunt with whom, according to Wynne, she had
been living. (No one but myself knew anything of Wynne's affairs, and
my mother, though she had heard of the aunt, had not, as I then
believed, heard of her death.) She proposed that Shales himself
should contrive to take Winifred to Wales. 'She had reasons,' she
said, 'for wishing that Winifred should not be handed over to the
local parish officer.' She offered to pay Shales liberally for going.
_I_, however, was to know nothing of this. Her object, of course,
was to get Winifred out of my way. The aunt's address was furnished
by a Mr. Lacon of Dullingham, an old friend of Wynne's, who also, it
seems, was ignorant of the aunt's death. This aunt, a sister of
Winifred's mother, named Davies, the widow of a sea captain who had
once known better days, resided in an old cottage between Bettws y
Coed and Capel Curig. Shales had found no difficulty in persuading
Winifred to go with him, for she had now sunk into a condition of
dazed stupor, and was very docile.
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