Armadale Book the second - Chapter VII

In which Allan Armadale secures Miss Milroy’s favour anew by inviting her to a carefully arranged picnic, and Midwinter takes on the role of his steward’s tutor, uncovering the melancholy history of their timid new acquaintance, Mr. Bashwood. Meanwhile, unsettling suspicions deepen as a watchful friend pursues a shadowy intrigue, and preparations for the picnic bring an unexpected complication with the arrival of a governess whose presence promises novel disturbances.