"
She was on the way to her aunt's wash-house, where she worked Mondays.
"'Tis like this," she said. "I've had a very strange, secret sort of a
letter, Mr. Bates. It's signed 'Well Wisher,' and I believe it's true.
Thank God I'm sure if it is."
She handed me the letter and I read it. There weren't much to it so far as
the length, but it meant a powerful lot for Jenny. It ran like this:
_Dear Mrs. White, your husband's working to Meldon Quarry, so don't you
marry nobody else. Well Wisher._
"Say you believe it," begged the woman, when I handed her letter back to
her.
"Whether 'tis true or not can quickly be proved," I answered. "And if it's
true, then Spider's foolisher and wickeder than I thought him."
"I don't care how wicked he is so long as he's alive," she said.
"His one excuse for leaving you was to be drownded in the Dart, and if he
ain't drownded, he's done a damn shameful thing to desert you," I told
her. "However, you can put it to the proof. The world is full of little,
black, ugly, hairy men like your husband, so you needn't be too hopeful;
but I do believe it's true. Of course somebody may have seen his ghost;
and to go and wander about at Meldon is just a silly thing his ghost might
do; but I believe he's there--the fool."
"Where's Meldon Quarry?" she asked, and I told her.
"Beside Meldon Viaduct, on the railroad over Okehampton way.
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