time."

"Did you live there before your marriage, Mrs. Clements?"

"No, sir--I'm a Norfolk woman.  It wasn't the place my husband
belonged to either.  He was from Grimsby, as I told you, and he
served his apprenticeship there.  But having friends down south,
and hearing of an opening, he got into business at Southampton. 
It was in a small way, but he made enough for a plain man to
retire on, and settled at Old Welmingham.  I went there with him
when he married me.  We were neither of us young, but we lived
very happy together--happier than our neighbour, Mr. Catherick,
lived along with his wife when they came to Old Welmingham a year
or two afterwards."

"Was your husband acquainted with them before that?"

"With Catherick, sir--not with his wife.  She was a stranger to
both of us.  Some gentlemen had made interest for Catherick, and
he got the situation of clerk at Welmingham church, which was the
reason of his coming to settle in our neighbourhood.  He brought
his newly-married wife along with him, and we heard in course of
time she had been lady's-maid in a family that lived