Janet Hughes
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Janet Hughes is Mrs Strange's maid. When her mistress returns from her apparent daylong ramble in the snow, Janet attends her. She finds 'Mrs Strange' (it is of course not the real Mrs Strange, who has been stolen away to Faerie, but a fetch*) lying on the bed, still wearing the mysterious black dress, and complaining of pains in her hands. Janet informs her master of the indisposition[44].
* A 'fetch', or as the Yorkshiremen say, a 'waff' is an apparition in the form of a living person. In Mrs Strange's case a piece of moss-oak has been magically transformed into her exact double and persuaded to impersonate her. This is a scheme of the gentleman with the thistle-down hair, who wishes to steal Mrs Strange away to live with him at Lost-hope without alerting the suspicions of her husband. The scheme succeeds, for a while.
* A 'fetch', or as the Yorkshiremen say, a 'waff' is an apparition in the form of a living person. In Mrs Strange's case a piece of moss-oak has been magically transformed into her exact double and persuaded to impersonate her. This is a scheme of the gentleman with the thistle-down hair, who wishes to steal Mrs Strange away to live with him at Lost-hope without alerting the suspicions of her husband. The scheme succeeds, for a while.