“Portland Place, October 28th.
“MY DEAR SIR,
“Mrs. Lecount has just left us. If it was not too late to wish, I should wish, from the bottom of my heart, that Norah had taken your advice, and had refused to see her.
“I write in such distress of mind that I cannot hope to give you a clear and complete account of the interview. I can only tell you briefly what Mrs. Lecount has done, and what our situation now is. The rest must be left until I am more composed, and until I can speak to you personally.
“You will remember my informing you of the letter which Mrs. Lecount addressed to Norah from Aldborough, and which I answered for her in her absence. When Mrs. Lecount made her appearance to-day, her first words announced to us that she had come to renew the subject. As well as I can remember it, this is what she said, addressing herself to Norah:
“‘I wrote to you on the subject of your sister, Miss Vanstone, some little time since, and Miss Garth was so good as to answer the letter. What I feared at that time has come true. Your sister has defied all my efforts to check her; she has disappeared in company with my master, Mr. Noel Vanstone; and she is now in a position of danger which may lead to her disgrace and ruin at a moment’s notice. It is my interest to recover my master, it is your interest to save your sister. Tell me—for time is precious—have you any news of her?’
“Norah answered, as well as her terror and distress would allow her, ‘I have had a letter, but there was no address on it.’
“Mrs. Lecount asked, ‘Was there no postmark on the envelope?’
“Norah said, ‘Yes; Allonby.’
“‘Allonby is better than nothing,’ said Mrs. Lecount. ‘Allonby may help you to trace her. Where is Allonby?’
“Norah told her. It all passed in a minute. I had been too much confused and startled to interfere before, but I composed myself sufficiently to interfere now.
“‘You have entered into no particulars,’ I said. ‘You have only frightened us—you have told us nothing.’
“‘You shall hear the particulars, ma’am,’ said Mrs. Lecount; ‘and you and Miss Vanstone shall judge for yourselves if I have frightened you without a cause.’
“Upon this, she entered at once upon a long narrative, which I cannot—I might almost say, which I dare not—repeat. You will understand the horror we both felt when I tell you the end. If Mrs. Lecount’s statement is to be relied on, Magdalen has carried her mad resolution of recovering her father’s fortune to the last and most desperate extremity—she has married Michael Vanstone’s son under a false name. Her husband is at this moment still persuaded that her maiden name was Bygrave, and that she is really the niece of a scoundrel who assisted her imposture, and whom I recognize, by the description of him, to have been Captain Wragge.