At her instructions, Captain Wragge had discovered that Michael Vanstone was dead and that his son, Noel Vanstone, had succeeded to the property, and was now living with his father’s old housekeeper, a certain Swiss lady, the widow of a professor of science, by name Mrs. Lecount, in Vauxhall Walk, Lambeth.  The remaining information that Wragge obtained regarding the Vanstones was to the effect that the deceased Michael had a great friend in Admiral Bartram, whose nephew George was the son of Mr. Andrew Vanstone’s sister, and therefore the cousin of Noel Vanstone.  Having this information, Magdalen calmly informed Wragge that their alliance, for the moment, was at an end, and taking Mrs. Wragge with her, journeyed to London.  There she obtained rooms directly opposite the house occupied by Noel Vanstone.  Disguising herself as Miss Garth and assuming her old governess’s voice and manner, she boldly visited the house.  She found Noel Vanstone a weak, avaricious coward, who was already terrified by the letters she had written him demanding the restitution of her fortune.  He was completely at the mercy of Mrs. Lecount.

Something about the supposed Miss Garth excited the suspicion of Mrs. Lecount, and she deliberately set about to try and make her visitor betray what she was convinced she was concealing.

“I would suggest,” said Mrs. Lecount, “that you give a hundred pounds to each of these unfortunate sisters.”

“He will repent the insult to the last hour of his life,” said Magdalen.

The instant that answer passed her lips, she would have given worlds to recall it.  Her passionate words had been uttered in her own voice.  Mrs. Lecount detected the change, and, with a view to establishing some proof of the identity of her visitor, she secured, by a subterfuge, a thin strip of the old-fashioned skirt which Magdalen was wearing in the character of Miss Garth.

Foiled in her appeal to Noel Vanstone, Magdalen determined to put in train the plot she had long proposed to herself.  She set out deliberately to win the property of which she and her sister had been despoiled, by winning the hand of Noel Vanstone.  A letter from Frank Clare had released her from her engagement, and with a bitter heart she went down to Aldborough, in Suffolk, whither Noel Vanstone had removed for his health.

In the character of the niece of Mr. Bygrave, which role Captain Wragge adopted, she laid siege to the selfish affections of Noel Vanstone.  Her task proved ridiculously easy.  Noel fell hopelessly in love with her, and before many days were out proposed marriage.  So far, everything had worked smoothly, but at this point Mrs. Lecount’s fears were aroused.  She determined to prevent the marriage at all costs, and used every possible means to dissuade her master from having anything more to do with the Bygraves, and the whole plot must have fallen to the ground had it not been for the persistence and skilful diplomacy displayed by Captain Wragge.