I always meant to do something for you," he
said, coaxingly. "You would have heard from
me, before long. Upon my word and honour,
Lecount, you would have heard from me, before
long!"

"I don't doubt it, sir," replied Mrs. Lecount.
"But for the present, never mind about Me.
You, and your interests, first."

"How did you come here?" he asked, looking
at her in astonishment. "How came you to
find me out?"

"It is a long story, sir; I will tell it you
some other time. Let it be enough to say now,
that I have found you. Will Mrs. Noel be
back again at the house to-day? A little
louder, sir; I can hardly hear you. So! so!
Not back again till the end of the week! And
where is she gone? To London, did you say?
And what for?—I am not inquisitive, Mr. Noel;
I am asking serious questions, under serious
necessity. Why has your wife left you here, and
gone to London by herself?"

They were down at the fence again as she
made that last inquiry; and they waited, leaning
against it, while Noel Vanstone answered. Her
reiterated assurances that she bore him no
malice were producing their effect on him: he
was beginning to recover himself. The old helpless
habit of addressing all his complaints to his
housekeeper, was returning already with the
reappearance of Mrs. Lecount—returning insidiously,
in company with that besetting anxiety to
talk about his grievances, which had got the
better of him at the breakfast-table, and which
had shown the wound inflicted on his vanity to
his wife's maid.

"I can't answer for Mrs. Noel Vanstone,"
he said, spitefully. "Mrs. Noel Vanstone has
not treated me with the consideration which is
my due. She has taken my permission for
granted; and she has only thought proper to tell
me that the object of her journey is to see her
friends in London. She went away this morning,
without bidding me good-by. She takes her own
way, as if I was nobody; she treats me like a
child. You may not believe it, Lecount—but I
don't even know who her friends are. I am
left quite in the dark—I am left to guess for
myself that her friends in London are her uncle and
aunt."

Mrs. Lecount privately considered the question
by the help of her own knowledge, obtained
in London. She soon reached the obvious
conclusion. After writing to her sister in the first
instance, Magdalen had now, in all probability,
followed the letter in person. There was little
doubt that the friends she had gone to visit in
London, were her sister and Miss Garth.

"Not her uncle and aunt, sir," resumed Mrs.
Lecount, composedly. "A secret for your private
ear! She has no uncle and aunt. Another little
turn before I explain myself—another little turn
to compose your spirits."

She took him in custody once more; and
marched him back towards the house.

"Mr. Noel!" she said, suddenly stopping in
the middle of the walk. "Do you know what
was the worst mischief you ever did yourself in
your life? I will tell you. That worst mischief
was sending me to Zurich."

His hand began to tremble on her arm once
more.

"I didn't do it!" he cried, piteously. "It was
all Mr. Bygrave."

"You acknowledge, sir, that Mr. Bygrave
deceived me?" proceeded Mrs. Lecount. "l am
glad to hear that. You will be all the readier to
make the next discovery which is waiting for
you—the discovery that Mr. Bygrave has
deceived you. He is not here to slip through my
fingers now; and I am not the helpless woman
in this place that I was at Aldborough. Thank
God!"

She uttered that devout exclamation through
her set teeth. All her hatred of Captain Wragge
hissed out of her lips in those two words.

"Oblige me, sir, by holding one side of my
travelling-bag," she resumed, "while I open it,
and take something out."

The interior of the bag disclosed a series of
neatly-folded papers, all laid together in order,
and numbered outside. Mrs. Lecount took out
one of the papers, and shut up the bag again
with a loud snap of the spring that closed it.

"At Aldborough, Mr. Noel, I had only my
own opinion to support me," she remarked.
"My own opinion was nothing against Miss
Bygrave's youth and beauty, and Mr. Bygrave's
ready wit. I could only hope to attack your
infatuation with proofs—and at that time I had
not got them. I have got them now! I am
armed at all points with proofs—I bristle from
head to foot with proofs—I break my forced
silence, and speak with the emphasis of my
proofs. Do you know this writing, sir?"

He shrank back from the paper which she
offered to him.

"I don't understand this," he said, nervously.
"I don't know what you want, or what you
mean."

Mrs. Lecount forced the paper into his hand.
"You shall know what I mean, sir, if you will
give me a moment's attention," she said. "On
the day after you went away to St. Crux, I
obtained admission to Mr. Bygrave's house, and I
had some talk in private with Mr. Bygrave's
wife. That talk supplied me with the means to
convince you which I had wanted to find for
weeks and weeks past. I wrote you a letter to
say so—I wrote to tell you, that I would forfeit
my place in your service, and my expectations
from your generosity, if I did not prove to you
when I came back from Switzerland, that my
own private suspicion of Miss Bygrave was the
truth. I directed that letter to you at St. Crux,
and I posted it myself. Now, Mr. Noel, read
the paper which I have forced into your hand.
It is Admiral Bartram's written affirmation, that
my letter came to St. Crux, and that he enclosed
it to you, under cover to Mr. Bygrave, at your