Madge had returned, he informed Gower.

She was well, she was well in health; he had her assurances that she was not excited about herself.
'She has brought a lady with her, a great lady to lodge with her.

She has brought the Countess of Fleetwood to lodge with her.' Gower heard those words from his father; and his father repeated them.
To the prostrate worshipper of the Countess of Fleetwood, they were a blow on the head; madness had set in here, was his first recovering thought, or else a miracle had come to pass.

Or was it a sham Countess of Fleetwood imposing upon the girl?
His father was to go and see the great lady, at the greengrocer's shop; at her request, according to Madge.

Conjectures shot their perishing tracks across a darkness that deepened and made shipwreck of philosophy.