by way of St. Crux, had come to an end. "Now
for the present. The bridegroom——"

"If it makes no difference," she interposed,
" call him Mr. Noel Vanstone"

"With all my heart. Mr. Noel Vanstone is
coming here this afternoon to dine and spend the
evening. He will be tiresome in the last degree
—but like all tiresome people, he is not to be
got rid of on any terms. Before he comes, I
have a last word or two of caution for your
private ear. By this time tomorrow we shall
have parted—without any certain knowledge, on
either side, of our ever meeting again. I am
anxious to serve your interests faithfully to the
last—I am anxious you should feel that I have
done all I could for your future security, when
we say good-by."

Magdalen looked at him in surprise. He
spoke in altered tones. He was agitated; he
was strangely in earnest. Something in his look
and manner took her memory back to the first
night at Aldborough, when she had opened her
mind to him in the darkening solitude—when
they two had sat together alone, on the slope of
the martello tower.

"I have no reason to think otherwise than
kindly of you," she said.

Captain Wragge suddenly left his chair, and
took a turn backwards and forwards in the room.
Magdalen's last words seemed to have produced
some extraordinary disturbance in him.

"Damn it!" he broke out; "I can't let you
say that. You have reason to think ill of me. I
have cheated you. You never got your fair share
of profit from the Entertainment, from first to
last. There! now the murder's out!"

Magdalen smiled, and signed to him to come
back to his chair.

"I know you cheated me," she said, quietly.
"You were in the exercise of your profession,
Captain Wragge. I expected it when I joined
you. I made no complaint at the time; and I
make none now. If the money you took is any
recompense for all the trouble I have given you,
you are heartily welcome to it."

"Will you shake hands on that?" asked the
captain, with an awkwardness and hesitation,
strongly at variance with his customary ease
of manner.

Magdalen gave him her hand. He wrung it
hard. "You are a strange girl," he said, trying
to speak lightly. "You have laid a hold on me
that I don't quite understand. I'm half
uncomfortable at taking the money from you, now—
and yet, you don't want it, do you?" He hesitated.
"I almost wish," he said, "I had never
met you on the Walls of York."

"It is too late to wish that, Captain Wragge.
Say no more. You only distress me—say no
more. We have other subjects to talk about.
What were those words of caution which you
had for my private ear?"

The captain took another turn in the room,
and struggled back again into his every-day
character. He produced from his pocket-book Mrs
Lecount's letter to her master, and handed it to
Magdalen.

"There is the letter that might have ruined
us, if it had ever reached its address," he said.
"Read it carefully. I have a question to ask you
when you have done."

Magdalen read the letter. "What is this
proof," she inquired, "which Mrs. Lecount relies
on so confidently?"

"The very question I was going to ask you,"
said Captain Wragge. Consult your memory of
what happened, when you tried that experiment
in Vauxhall Walk. Did Mrs. Lecount get no
other chance against you, than the chances you
have told me of already?"

"She discovered that my face was disguised,
and she heard me speak in my own voice."

"And nothing more?"

"Nothing more."

"Very good. Then my interpretation of the
letter is clearly the right one. The proof Mrs.
Lecount relies on, is my wife's infernal ghost
story—which is, in plain English, the story of
Miss Bygrave having been seen in Miss Vanstone's
disguise; the witness being the very
person who is afterwards presented at Aldborough,
in the character of Miss Bygrave's aunt.
An excellent chance for Mrs. Lecount, if she can
only lay her hand at the right time on Mrs.
Wragge—and no chance at all, if she can't.
Make your mind easy on that point. Mrs. Lecount
and my wife have seen the last of each
other. In the mean time, don't neglect
the warning I give you, in giving you this letter.
Tear it up, for fear of accidents—but don't
forget it."

"Trust me to remember it," replied Magdalen,
destroying the letter while she spoke. "Have
you anything more to tell me?"

"I have some information to give you," said
Captain Wragge, "which may be useful, because
it relates to your future security. Mind, I want
to know nothing about your proceedings when
tomorrow is over—we settled that when we first
discussed this matter. I ask no questions, and
I make no guesses. All I want to do now, is to
warn you of your legal position, after your marriage;
and to leave you to make what use you
please of your knowledge, at your own sole discretion.
I took a lawyer's opinion on the point,
when I was in London, thinking it might be useful
to you."

"It is sure to be useful. What did the lawyer
say?"

"To put it plainly, this is what he said. If
Mr. Noel Vanstone ever discovers that you have
knowingly married him under a false name, he
can apply to the Ecclesiastical Court to have his
marriage declared null and void. The issue of
the application would rest with the Judges. But
if he could prove that he had been intentionally
deceived, the legal opinion is that his case would
be a strong one."

"Suppose I chose to apply on my side?" said
Magdalen, eagerly. "What then?"