of Le Clerc upon the monument, he found out what I have no doubt the reader will be heartily sorry for.
It will immediately occur to the reader that both Charles and Figgins must have been acquainted with all this matter, and yet it is very certain they were not. The history of Annette was known only to five persons; namely, Lord and Lady Hazard, Sir Sidney and Lady Roebuck, and Emma. Three of these did not know the whole truth. Thus, the name of Le Clerc was never uttered to Charles nor Figgins as the name of Annette's mother, nor to Sir Sidney as the maiden name of Mrs. Combrie; or, if it had, it probably would not have induced any suspicion of so extraordinary and unlikely a circumstance as this: for Le Clerc, in France, is as common a name as Smith is in England.
It also looks singular that Charles should not know the private story of his wife, or that she should be ignorant of his; but she is mentioned early in life to have been engaged in an intrigue, and it is probable that she thought youthful folly was not a proper thing for a husband to be entrusted with,

and as to him, I have already noticed his remarkable delicacy towards Annette, as well as that she greatly commended him for it. Besides, had there been no other reason, the state of Mrs. Hazard's mind and health must have been such as to have precluded the smallest likelihood of retrospective investigation between them on subjects which could only have been developed through the medium of great curiosity and long intimacy, neither of which, as the reader sees, obtained in the present case; and therefore nothing could be further from the mind of either than that their union involved in it so momentous and mysterious a circumstance.
During the journey that Emma persuaded Sir Sidney to take into France, it cannot be forgotten that every possible enquiry was made by the baronet concerning Annette's mother. He however only learnt, as I there say, Ingot's story, and also that Miss Le Clerc had shifted her quarters to another convent, where they either could not or would not give any account of her. The fact was, that as the elopement of a nun from a convent in France is never, like a runaway from a boarding school in England, advertised in all the newspapers, but, on the contrary, kept as snug as possible, their enquiries were looked upon as little more than impertinent curiosity, which will indeed be readily believed

when it is considered that the convent of our