“If any opportunity falls in your way after you have taken the house, and before we join you, of exchanging a few civil words either with Mr. Noel Vanstone or Mrs. Lecount, take advantage of it.  It is very important to my present object that we should become acquainted with each other—­as the purely accidental result of our being near neighbors.  I want you to smooth the way toward this end if you can, before Mrs. Wragge and I come to you.  Pray throw away no chance of observing Mrs. Lecount, in particular, very carefully.  Whatever help you can give me at the outset in blindfolding that woman’s sharp eyes will be the most precious help I have ever received at your hands.

“There is no need to answer this letter immediately—­unless I have written it under a mistaken impression of what you have accomplished since leaving London.  I have taken our lodgings on for another week; and I can wait to hear from you until you are able to send me such news as I wish to receive.  You may be quite sure of my patience for the future, under all possible circumstances.  My caprices are at an end, and my violent temper has tried your forbearance for the last time.

“MAGDALEN.”

XII.

From Captain Wragge to Magdalen.

“North Shingles Villa, Aldborough, Suffolk, July 22d.

“MY DEAR GIRL—­Your letter has charmed and touched me.  Your excuses have gone straight to my heart; and your confidence in my humble abilities has followed in the sa me direction.  The pulse of the old militia-man throbs with pride as he thinks of the trust you have placed in him, and vows to deserve it.  Don’t be surprised at this genial outburst.  All enthusiastic natures must explode occasionally; and my form of explosion is—­Words.

“Everything you wanted me to do is done.  The house is taken; the name is found; and I am personally acquainted with Mrs. Lecount.  After reading this general statement, you will naturally be interested in possessing your mind next of the accompanying details.  Here they are, at your service: 

“The day after leaving you in London, I traced Mr. Noel Vanstone to this curious little seaside snuggery.  One of his father’s innumerable bargains was a house at Aldborough—­a rising watering-place, or Mr. Michael Vanstone would not have invested a farthing in it.  In this house the despicable little miser, who lived rent free in London, now lives, rent free again, on the coast of Suffolk.  He is settled in his present abode for the summer and autumn; and you and Mrs. Wragge have only to join me here, to be established five doors away from him in this elegant villa.  I have got the whole house for three guineas a week, with the option of remaining through the autumn at the same price.  In a fashionable watering-place, such a residence would have been cheap at double the money.