The policeman who looked after him to insure
his attendance at the trial discovered that he had committed past
offenses, for which the law can make him answer. A summons was
executed upon him, and he was taken before the magistrate the
moment he left the court after giving his evidence.
I had just written these few lines, and was closing my journal,
when there came a knock at the door. I answered it, thinking that
Robert had called on his way home to say good-night, and found
myself face to face with a strange gentleman, who immediately
asked for Anne Rodway. On hearing that I was the person inquired
for, he requested five minutes' conversation with me. I showed
him into the little empty room at the back of the house, and
waited, rather surprised and fluttered, to hear what he had to
say.
He was a dark man, with a serious manner, and a short, stern way
of speaking I was certain that he was a stranger, and yet there
seemed something in his face not unfamiliar to me. He began by
taking a newspaper from his pocket, and asking me if I was the
person who had given evidence at the trial of Noah Truscott on a
charge of manslaughter. I answered immediately that I was.
"I have been for nearly two years in London seeking Mary
Mallinson, and always seeking her in vain," he said.
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