have discovered the artifice by which they had
been concealed: at the distance of two or three
feet only, it was perfectly invisible.

"Wait here, five minutes," said Captain
Wragge, "to let the paint dry—and then join us
in the parlour. Mrs. Lecount herself would be
puzzled, if she looked at you now."

"Stop!" said Magdalen. "There is one thing
you have not told me yet. How did Mrs.
Lecount get the description, which you read down
stairs? Whatever else she has seen of me, she
has not seen the mark on my neck—it is too far
back, and too high up; my hair hides it."

"Who knows of the mark?" asked Captain
Wragge.

She turned deadly pale, under the anguish of
a sudden recollection of Frank.

"My sister knows it," she said faintly.

"Mrs. Lecount may have written to your
sister," suggested the captain.

"Do you think my sister would tell a stranger
what no stranger has a right to know? Never!
never!"

"Is there nobody else who could tell Mrs.
Lecount? The mark was mentioned in the handbills
at York. Who put it there?"

"Not Norah! Perhaps Mr. Pendril. Perhaps
Miss Garth."

"Then Mrs. Lecount has written to Mr.
Pendril or Miss Garth—more likely to Miss Garth.
The governess would be easier to deal with than
the lawyer."

"What can she have said to Miss Garth?"

Captain Wragge considered a little.

"I can't say what Mrs. Lecount may have
written," he said; "but I can tell you what I
should have written in Mrs. Lecount's place. I
should have frightened Miss Garth by false
reports about you, to begin with—and then I should
have asked for personal particulars, to help a
benevolent stranger in restoring you to your
friends."

The angry glitter flashed up instantly in
Magdalen's eyes.

"What you would have done, is what Mrs.
Lecount has done," she said indignantly.
"Neither lawyer, nor governess, shall dispute
my right to my own will, and my own way. If
Miss Garth thinks she can control my actions by
corresponding with Mrs. Lecount—I will show
Miss Garth she is mistaken! It is high time,
Captain Wragge, to have done with these
wretched risks of discovery. We will take the
short way to the end we have in view, sooner
than Mrs. Lecount or Miss Garth think for.
How long can you give me to wring an offer of
marriage out of that creature down stairs?"

"I dare not give you long," replied Captain
Wragge. " Now your friends know where you
are, they may come down on us at a day's notice.
Could you manage it in a week?"

"I'll manage it in half the time," she said,
with a hard, defiant laugh. "Leave us together
this morning, as you left us at Dunwich—and
take Mrs. Wragge with you, as an excuse for
parting company. Is the paint dry yet? Go
down stairs and tell him I am coming directly."

So, for the second time, Miss Garth's well-meant
efforts defeated their own end. So, the
fatal force of circumstance turned the hand that
would fain have held Magdalen back, into the
hand that drove her on.

The captain returned to his visitor in the
parlour—after first stopping on the way, to issue
his orders for the walking excursion to Mrs.
Wragge.

"I am shocked to have kept you waiting," he
said, sitting down again confidentially by Mr. Noel
Vanstone's side. "My only excuse is, that my
niece had accidentally dressed her hair, so as to
defeat our object. I have been persuading her
to alter it—and young ladies are apt to be a
little obstinate on questions relating to their
toilette. Give her a chair on that side of you,
when she comes in—and take your look at
her neck comfortably, before we start for our
walk."

Magdalen entered the room as he said those
words—and, after the first greetings were
exchanged, took the chair presented to her, with
the most unsuspicious readiness. Mr. Noel
Vanstone applied the Crucial Test on the spot—
with the highest appreciation of the fair material
which was the subject of experiment. Not the
vestige of a mole was visible on any part of the
smooth white surface of Miss Bygrave's neck.
It mutely answered the blinking inquiry of
Mr. Noel Vanstone's half-closed eyes, by the
flattest practical contradiction of Mrs. Lecount.
That one central incident in the events of the
morning, was of all the incidents that had
hitherto occurred, the most important in its
results. That one discovery shook the
housekeeper's hold on her master, as nothing had
shaken it yet.

In a few minutes, Mrs. Wragge made her
appearance, and excited as much surprise in Mr.
Noel Vanstone's mind as he was capable of feeling,
while absorbed in the enjoyment of Magdalen's
society. The walking party left the house
at once; directing their steps northward, so as
not to pass the windows of Sea-View Cottage.
To Mrs. Wragge's unutterable astonishment,
her husband, for the first time in the course of
their married life, politely offered her his arm,
and led her on, in advance of the young people,
as if the privilege of walking alone with her
presented some special attraction to him ! "Step
out!" whispered the captain, fiercely. "Leave
your niece and Mr. Vanstone alone! If I catch
you looking back at them, I'll put the Oriental
Cashmere Robe on the top of the kitchen fire!
Turn your toes out, and keep step—confound
you, keep step!" Mrs. Wragge kept step to
the best of her limited ability. Her sturdy
knees trembled under her. She firmly believed
the captain was intoxicated.

The walk lasted for rather more than an hour.
Before nine o'clock they were all back again at
North Shingles. The ladies went at once into