No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away.
Quite so. She has her freedom.
What _can_ be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?
I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would cover
the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is correct can
only be determined by the fresh information which we shall no doubt
find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of the cathedral, and we
shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has to tell.
The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no distance
from the station, and there we found the young lady waiting for us. She
had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch awaited us upon the table.
I am so delighted that you have come, she said earnestly. It is so
very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I should do. Your
advice will be altogether invaluable to me.
Pray tell us what has happened to you.
I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. Rucastle to
be back before three. I got his leave to come into town this morning,
though he little knew for what purpose.
Let us have everything in its due order. Holmes thrust his long thin
legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen.
In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, with no
actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is only fair to
them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and I am not easy in my
mind about them.
What can you not understand?
Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just as it
occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and drove me in
his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he said, beautifully
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