being able to write back—for Magdalen expressly
says that she is on the eve of departure from her
present residence, and that she is not at liberty
to say where she is going to next, or to leave
instructions for forwarding any letters after her.
"In happier times, I should have thought this
letter very far from being a satisfactory one—
and I should have been seriously alarmed by
that allusion to a future confidence on her part
which will try my love for her as nothing has
tried it yet. But, after all the suspense I have
suffered, the happiness of seeing her handwriting
again seems to fill my heart, and to keep all other
feelings out of it. I don't send you her letter,
because I know you are coming to me soon, and I
want to have the pleasure of seeing you read it.
"Ever affectionately yours,

"NORAH.

"P.S.—Mr. George Bartram called on Mrs.
Tyrrel to-day. He insisted on being introduced
to the children. When he was gone, Mrs.
Tyrrel laughed in her good-humoured way, and
said that his anxiety to see the children looked,
to her mind, very much like an anxiety to see me.
You may imagine how my spirits are improved,
when I can occupy my pen in writing such
nonsense as this!"

V.

FROM MRS. LECOUNT TO MR. DE BLERIOT,
GENERAL AGENT, LONDON.

"St. Crux, October 23rd, 1847.

"Dear Sir,—I have been long in thanking you
for the kind letter which promises me your
assistance, in friendly remembrance of the
commercial relations formerly existing between my
brother and yourself. The truth is, I have
overtasked my strength on my recovery from a long
and dangerous illness; and for the last ten days
I have been suffering under a relapse. I am now
better again, and able to enter on the business
which you so kindly offer to undertake for me.

"The person whose present place of abode it
is of the utmost importance to me to discover, is
Mr. Noel Vanstone. I have lived, for many
years past, in this gentleman's service as
housekeeper; and not having received my formal
dismissal, I consider myself in his service still.
During my absence on the Continent, he was
privately married at Aldborough, in Suffolk, on
the eighteenth of August last. He left Aldborough
the same day; taking his wife with him to some
place of retreat which was kept a secret from
everybody, except his lawyer, Mr. Loscombe, of
Lincoln's Inn. After a short time he again
removed, on the 4th of September, without
informing Mr. Loscombe, on this occasion, of his
new place of abode. From that date to this,
the lawyer has remained (or has pretended to
remain) in total ignorance of where he now is.
Application has been made to Mr. Loscombe,
under the circumstances, to mention what that
former place of residence was, of which Mr.
Vanstone is known to have informed him.
Mr. Loscombe has declined acceding to this
request, for want of formal permission to disclose
his client's proceedings after leaving Aldborough.
I have all these latter particulars from Mr.
Loscombe's correspondent—the nephew of the
gentleman who owns this house, and whose charity
has given me an asylum, during the heavy affliction
of my sickness, under his own roof.

"I believe the reasons which have induced
Mr. Noel Vanstone to keep himself and his wife
in hiding, are reasons which relate entirely to
myself. In the first place, he is aware that the
circumstances under which he has married, are
such as to give me the right of regarding him
with a just indignation. In the second place, he
knows that my faithful services, rendered
through a period of twenty years, to his father
and to himself, forbid him, in common decency,
to cast me out helpless on the world, without a
provision for the end of my life. He is the
meanest of living men, and his wife is the vilest
of living women. As long as he can avoid
fulfilling his obligations to me, he will; and his
wife's encouragement may be trusted to fortify
him in his ingratitude.

"My object in determining to find him out, is
briefly this. His marriage has exposed him to
consequences which a man of ten times his courage
could not face without shrinking. Of those
consequences he knows nothing. His wife knows,
and keeps him in ignorance. I know, and can
enlighten him. His security from the danger
that threatens him, is in my hands alone;
and he shall pay the price of his rescue, to the
last farthing of the debt that justice claims for
me as my due—no more and no less.

"I have now laid my mind before you, as you
told me, without reserve. You know why I want
to find this man, and what I mean to do when I
find him. I leave it to your sympathy for me, to
answer the serious question that remains: How
is the discovery to be made? If a first trace
of them can be found, after their departure from
Aldborough, I believe careful inquiry will suffice
for the rest. The personal appearance of the
wife, and the extraordinary contrast between her
husband and herself, is certain to be remarked,
and remembered, by every stranger who sees
them.

"When you favour me with your answer,
please address it to 'Care of Admiral Bartram.,
St. Crux-in-the-Marsh, near Ossory, Essex.'
"Your much obliged,

"VIRGINIE LECOUNT."

VI.

FROM MR. DE BLERIOT TO MRS. LECOUNT.

"Dark's Buildings, Kingsland,
October 25th, 1847.

"Private and Confidential.

"Dear Madam,—I hasten to reply to your
favour of Saturday's date. Circumstances have
enabled me to forward your interests, by
consulting a friend of mine, possessing great
experience in the management of private inquiries of
all sorts. I have placed your case before him