An heiress ?--May Tomalin?
Shaking of the head dismissed this fancy.

Miss Tomalin was a matter-of-fact young person; he could not see her doing such a thing as this.

And yet--and yet--when he remembered their last talk, was it not conceivable that he had made a deeper impression upon her than, in his modesty, he allowed himself to suppose?
Had she not spoken, with a certain enthusiasm, of working on his behalf at Hollingford?
The disturbing event which immediately followed had put Miss Tomalin into the distance; his mind had busied itself continuously with surmises as to the nature of the benefit he might expect if he married Constance.
After all, Lady Ogram's niece _might_ have had recourse to this expedient.

She, at all events, knew that he was staying at Rivenoak, and might easily not have heard on what day he would leave.

Or, perhaps, knowing that he left yesterday, she had calculated that the letter would reach him before his departure; it had possibly been delivered at Rivenoak by the mid-day post.
Amusing, the thought that Constance had herself re-addressed this communication! Another possibility occurred to him.