We all sat silent for a few minutes. The dismay our visitor felt at being compelled to reveal these very private details to the scrutiny of strangers was clearly written upon his face. When he spoke at last, his voice was barely a whisper.

"Mr. Holmes, I am at a loss to explain this. I reproach myself bitterly. I never had the slightest suspicion, that there was something preying on Miss Wickham's mind. She seemed perfectly happy when we discussed the plans for our future home near Eastbourne yesterday. And now she has disappeared without a trace..."

Holmes knocked out the ashes of his pipe, and it was with an air of reluctance and weariness that he took the lady's letter from my hand.

But as he examined the document, the look of languor on his face was slowly transformed into an expression of intense and high-strung energy. As always, when an especially stimulating line of thought had opened up to him, his eyes showed the hard, dry glitter of interest.

"Well, Watson, the fair sex is your department. What do you make of it?"

"It seems the lady has committed an indiscretion."
Blount grew even paler under his bronze complexion and I instantly regretted my hastily spoken words.

"I fear, my dear Watson, that your assumption may prove erroneous." Holmes remarked. "Miss Wickham is a parson's daughter born and bred in the country; not a conventional beauty but of strong convictions and rare character; she has just recently paid a visit to a sickbed. Not the most likely person to commit an indiscretion that could endanger the very safety of England. These may be much deeper waters..."

Our visitor gave a violent start and his face confirmed the correctness of my friend's deductions. "Mr. Holmes!" he cried out in astonishment, "You know the lady?"

Holmes held up his hand in a gesture of negation. "Until today I have never heard of Miss Wickham."

"Then how could you possibly know all that?"

My friend quietly chuckled as he folded the note.

"It is as clear and as manifest as the nose in a man's face. But I think Miss Wickham is in grave danger and time may be of the essence. I promise I will explain everything to you on the train, gentlemen. Our investigations must now lead us into Sussex."