“But not before they went to Brighton?”
“Could Colonel Forster repeat the particulars of Lydia's note to his wife?”
“No,I believe not.”
“He meant I believe,”replied Jane,“to go to Epsom,the place where they last changed horses, see the postilions and try if anything could be made out from them.His principal object must be to discover the number of the hackney coach which took them from Clapham.It had come with a fare from London;and as he thought that the circumstance of a gentleman and lady's removing from one carriage into another might be remarked he meant to make inquiries at Clapham.If he could anyhow discover at what house the coachman had before set down his fare,he determined to make inquiries there,and hoped it might not be impossible to find out the stand and number of the coach.I do not know of any other designs that he had formed;but he was in such a hurry to be gone,and his spirits so greatly discomposed,that I had difficulty in finding out even so much as this.”
“Oh,Jane,had we been less secret,had we told what we knew of him,this could not have happened!”
“She had better have stayed at home,”cried Elizabeth;“perhaps she meant well,but,under such a misfortune as this,one cannot see too little of one's neighbours. Assistance is impossible;condolence insufferable.Let them triumph over us at a distance, and be satisfied.”