While the preparations for the ball at Barminster Castle had been going
on apace, trouble and confusion reigned in the little village on the
banks of the Thames.

No sooner had Mr. Jasper Vermont taken his departure, than poor Lucy
Ashford sank on the floor of the shop, and burst into a flood of tears.
So great had been the strain that she was completely unnerved, and had
quite forgotten the likelihood of her husband's return from Richmond, as
well as the mysterious disappearance of Jessica, who had not been seen
in the house since the arrival of Adrien Leroy and his unconscious
burden.

This sudden realisation of all the presentiment of evil which Lucy
Ashford had ever in her mind, had burst on her like a thunderbolt. She
had known always that the man, Mr. Jasper Vermont, who knew her secret,
was alive; but never before had she been actually threatened with its
betrayal. Her father, Mr. Harker, had always stood between her and that
dreadful possibility.

Presently, she jumped up and called to Jessica. Then she remembered that
the girl had disappeared from the time she had sent her from the room.
Fearful that Vermont might yet change his mind and return for the night,
she ran to the door, calling out Jessica's name in a paroxysm of nervous
terror, which finally, on receiving no reply, ended in a severe attack
of hysterics, in the midst of which her husband returned and found her.