But after a time he got weary of biding quiet here, and weary of her--he was not a good husband to the young lady by any means--and he betook himself again to his old trick of roving--with her money.

Away he went, quite out of the realm of human foot, into the bowels of Asia, and never was heard of more.

He was murdered, it is said, but nobody knows; though as that was nine years ago he's dead enough in principle, if not in corporation.

His widow lives quite humble, for between her husband and her brother she's left in very lean pasturage.' Nicholas went back to the Buck's Head without hovering round her dwelling.

This then was the explanation which she had wanted to make.
Not dead, but missing.