‘What do you say? Will you emerge from the darkness that surrounds you, and come to St Crux? If this was the case of an ordinary servant, I could understand your hesitating to leave the delights of your honeymoon for any such object as is here proposed to you. But, my dear fellow, Mrs Lecount is not an ordinary servant. You are under obligations to her fidelity and attachment, in your father’s time, as well as in your own; and if you can quiet the anxieties which seem to be driving this unfortunate woman mad, I really think you ought to come here and do so. Your leaving Mrs Noel Vanstone is of course out of the question. There is no necessity for any such hard-hearted proceeding. The admiral desires me to remind you that he is your oldest friend living, and that his house is at your wife’s disposal, as it has always been at yours. In this great rambling place she need dread no near association with the sick-room; and, with all my uncle’s oddities, I am sure she will not think the offer of his friendship an offer to be despised.
‘Have I told you already that I went to Aldborough to try and find a clue to your whereabouts? I can’t be at the trouble of looking back to see; so, if I have told you, I tell you again. The truth is, I made an acquaintance at Aldborough of whom you know something – at least, by report.
‘After applying vainly at Sea-View, I went to the hotel to inquire about you. The landlady could give me no information; but the moment I mentioned your name, she asked if I was related to you – and when I told her I was your cousin, she said there was a young lady then at the hotel, whose name was Vanstone also; who was in great distress about a missing relative; and who might prove of some use to me – or I to her -if we knew of each other’s errand at Aldborough. I had not the least idea who she was; but I sent in my card at a venture; and, in five minutes afterwards, I found myself in the presence of one of the most charming women these eyes ever looked on.
‘Our first words of explanation informed me that my family name was known to her by repute. Who do you think she was? The eldest daughter of my uncle and yours – Andrew Vanstone. I had often heard my poor mother, in past years, speak of her brother Andrew; and I knew of that sad story at Combe-Raven. But our families, as you are aware, had always been estranged; and I had never seen my charming cousin before. She has the dark eyes and hair, and the gentle retiring manners that I always admire in a woman. I don’t want to renew our old disagreement about your father’s conduct to those two sisters, or to deny that his brother Andrew may have behaved badly to him – I am willing to admit that the high moral position he took in the matter is quite unassailable by such a miserable sinner as I am – and I will not dispute that my own spendthrift habits incapacitate me from offering any opinion on the conduct of other people’s pecuniary affairs. But, with all these allowances and drawbacks, I can tell you one thing, Noel. If you ever see the elder Miss Vanstone, I venture to prophesy that, for the first time in your life, you will doubt the propriety of following your father’s example.
‘She told me her little story, poor thing, most simply and unaffectedly. She is now occupying her second situation as a governess – and, as usual, I, who know everybody, know the family. They are friends of my uncle’s, whom he has lost sight of latterly – the Tyrrels of Portland Place – and they treat Miss Vanstone with as much kindness and consideration as if she was a member of the family. One of their old servants accompanied her to Aldborough; her object in travelling to that place being what the landlady of the hotel had stated it to be. The family reverses have, it seems, had a serious effect on Miss Vanstone’s younger sister, who has left her friends, and who has been missing from home for some time. She had been last heard of at Aldborough; and her elder sister, on her return from the Continent with the Tyrrels, had instantly set out to make inquiries at that place.
‘This was all Miss Vanstone told me. She asked whether you had seen anything of her sister, or whether Mrs Lecount knew anything of her sister – I suppose because she was aware you had been at Aldborough. Of course I could tell her nothing. She entered into no details on the subject, and I could not presume to ask her for any. All I did was to set to work with might and main to assist her inquiries. The attempt was an utter failure – nobody could give us any information. We tried personal description of course; and, strange to say, the only young lady formerly staying at Aldborough, who answered the description, was, of all the people in the world, the lady you have married! If she had not had an uncle and aunt (both of whom have left the place), I should have begun to suspect that you had married your cousin without knowing it! Is this the clue to the mystery? Don’t be angry; I must have my little joke, and I can’t help writing as carelessly as I talk. The end of it was, our inquiries were all baffled, and I travelled back with Miss Vanstone and her attendant, as far as our station here. I think I shall call on the Tyrrels, when I am next in London. I have certainly treated that family with the most inexcusable neglect.
‘Here I am at the end of my third sheet of note-paper! I don’t often take the pen in hand; but when I do, you will agree with me, that I am in no hurry to lay it aside again. Treat the rest of my letter as you like – but consider what I have told you about Mrs Lecount, and remember that time is of consequence.
‘Ever yours,
‘GEORGE BARTRAM’
Two
From Norah Vanstone to Miss Garth
‘Portland Place
‘MY DEAR MISS GARTH,
‘More sorrow, more disappointment! I have just returned from Aldborough, without making any discovery. Magdalen is still lost to us.
‘I cannot attribute this new overthrow of my hopes to any want of perseverance or penetration in making the necessary inquiries. My inexperience in such matters was most kindly and unexpectedly assisted by Mr George Bartram. By a strange coincidence, he happened to be at Aldborough, inquiring after Mr Noel Vanstone, at the very time when I was there inquiring after Magdalen. He sent in his card, and knowing when I looked at the name, that he was my cousin – if I may call him so – I thought there would be no impropriety in my seeing him, and asking his advice. I abstained from entering into particulars, for Magdalen’s sake; and I made no allusion to that letter of Mrs Lecount’s which you answered for me. I only told him Magdalen was missing, and had been last heard of at Aldborough. The kindness which he showed in devoting himself to my assistance, exceeds all description. He treated me, in my forlorn situation, with a delicacy and respect, which I shall remember gratefully, long after he has himself perhaps forgotten our meeting altogether. He is quite young – not more than thirty, I should think. In face and figure, he reminded me a little of the portrait of my father at Combe-Raven – I mean the portrait in the dining-room, of my father when he was a young man.
‘Useless as our inquiries were, there is one result of them which has left a very strange and shocking impression on my mind.
‘It appears that Mr Noel Vanstone has lately married, under mysterious circumstances, a young lady whom he met with at Aldborough, named Bygrave. He has gone away with his wife, telling nobody but his lawyer where he has gone to. This I heard from Mr George Bartram, who was endeavouring to trace him, for the purpose of communicating the news of his housekeeper’s serious illness – the housekeeper being the same Mrs Lecount whose letter you answered. So far, you may say, there is nothing which need particularly interest either of us. But I think you will be as much surprised as I was, when I tell you that the description given by the people at Aldborough of Miss Bygrave’s appearance, is most startlingly and unaccountably like the description of Magdalen’s appearance. This discovery, taken in connection with all the circumstances we know of, has had an effect on my mind, which I cannot describe to you – which I dare not realize to myself. Pray come and see me! I have never felt so wretched about Magdalen as I feel now. Suspense must have weakened my nerves in some strange way. I feel superstitious about the slightest things. This accidental resemblance of a total stranger to Magdalen, fills me, every now and then, with the most horrible misgivings – merely because Mr N
oel Vanstone’s name happens to be mixed up with it. Once more, pray come to me – I have so much to say to you that I cannot, and dare not, say in writing.
‘Gratefully and affectionately yours,
‘NORAH’
Three
From Mr John Loscombe (Solicitor) to George Bartram, Esq.
‘Lincoln’s Inn, London.
‘September 6th, 1847
‘SIR,
‘I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your note, enclosing a letter addressed to my client, Mr Noel Vanstone, and requesting that I will forward the same to Mr Vanstone’s present address.
‘Since I last had the pleasure of communicating with you on this subject, my position towards my client is entirely altered. Three days ago, I received a letter from him which stated his intention of changing his place of residence on the next day then ensuing, but which left me entirely in ignorance on the subject of the locality to which it was his intention to remove. I have not heard from him since; and, as he had previously drawn on me for a larger sum of money than usual, there would be no present necessity for his writing to me again – assuming that it is his wish to keep his place of residence concealed from every one, myself included.
‘Under these circumstances, I think it right to return you your letter, with the assurance that I will let you know, if I happen to be again placed in a position to forward it to its destination.
‘Your obethent servant,
‘JOHN LOSCOMBE’
Four
From Norah Vanstone to Miss Garth
‘Portland Place
‘MY DEAR MISS GARTH,
‘Forget the letter I wrote to you yesterday, and all the gloomy forebodings that it contains. This morning’s post has brought new life to me. I have just received a letter, addressed to me at your house, and forwarded here, in your absence from home yesterday, by your sister. Can you guess who the writer is? – Magdalen!
‘The letter is very short; it seems to have been written in a hurry. She says she has been dreaming of me for some nights past, and the dreams have made her fear that her long silence has caused me more distress, on her account, than she is worth. She writes therefore to assure me that she is safe and well – that she hopes to see me before long – and that she has something to tell me, when we meet, which will try my sisterly love for her as nothing has tried it yet. The letter is not dated; but the postmark is ‘Allonby’, which I have found on referring to the Gazetteer, to be a little sea-side place in Cumberland. There is no hope of my 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!’
Five
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 Aid borough, I believe careful inquiry will suffice for the rest. The personal appearance of the wife, and the extraordinary contrast between her husband and herself, are 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’
Six
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 (without mentioning names); and I am happy to inform you that my views and his views of the proper course to take, agree in every particular.
‘
Both myself and friend, then, are of opinion that little or nothing can be done towards tracing the parties you mention, until the place of their temporary residence after they left Aldborough, has been discovered first. If this can be done, the sooner it is done the better. Judging from your letter, some weeks must have passed since the lawyer received his information that they had shifted their quarters. As they are both remarkable-looking people, the strangers who may have assisted them on their travels have probably not forgotten them yet. Nevertheless, expedition is desirable.
‘The question for you to consider is, whether they may not possibly have communicated the address of which we stand in need, to some other person besides the lawyer. The husband may have written to members of his family, or the wife may have written to members of her family. Both myself and friend are of opinion that the latter chance is the likeliest of the two. If you have any means of access in the direction of the wife’s family, we strongly recommend you to make use of them. If not, please supply us with the names of any of her near relations or intimate female friends whom you know, and we will endeavour to get access for you.
‘In any case, we request you will at once favour us with the most exact personal description that can be written of both the parties. We may require your assistance, in this important particular, at five minutes’ notice. Favour us, therefore, with the description by return of post. In the mean time, we will endeavour to ascertain, on our side, whether any information is to be privately obtained at Mr Loscombe’s office. The lawyer himself is probably altogether beyond our reach. But if any one of his clerks can be advantageously treated with, on such terms as may not overtax your pecuniary resources, accept my assurance that the opportunity shall be made the most of, by,
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