'
These words of the woman's showed that matters had taken exactly the
course I should have liked them to take. She would tell other
inquirers as she had told me, that her daughter had been buried by
the parish. No one would take the trouble, I thought, to inquire into
it, and the matter would end at once.
So I said to her, 'Oh, if the parish buried her, that's all right; no
one ever makes inquiries about people who are buried by the parish.'
This seemed to relieve the woman's mind vastly, and she said, 'In
course they don't. What's the use of askin' questions about people as
are buried by the parish?'
Not thinking that the time was quite ripe for cross-examining Mrs.
Gudgeon as to her real relations to the model, I left her, and that
same afternoon I took the model down to Hurstcote Manor, determining
to keep the matter a secret from everybody, as I intended to
discover, if possible, her identity.
I need scarcely remind you that although you told me some little of
the story of yourself and a young lady to whom you were deeply
attached, you were very reticent as to the cause of her dementia; and
your story ended with her disappearance in Wales.
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