Page:Adventures of Susan Hopley (Volume 1).pdf/75

62 the height of his perplexity, was a most confounding one, and "where is Mabel?" not much less so.

Susan suggested that he too might have been murdered-but then his body would have been found as well as Mr. Wentworth's-or he might have been carried off for some purpose by the criminals; but Mr. Jeremy objected that carrying off people against their will in England was no easy matter in these days. Finally, she suggested that he might have become aware of the murder, and of the direction taken by those who had perpetrated it, and have gone in pursuit of them. This supposition appeared, at once, the most probable and the most consoling; and to it they ultimately inclined.

Still, through the sleepless hours of the ensuing night, strange thoughts would find their way into Susan's mind; and again and again her dream, and the visit of the man with the crooked nose, recurred to her-though howto connect them with the catastrophe, she could not tell. However, the following morning was appointed for the inquest, when it was possible some light might be thrown on the mystery; and in tears, prayers, and interminable conjectures she passed the intervening hours.