The address on the second letter was in a strange handwriting.  Mrs. Lecount, concluding that it was the answer from Miss Vanstone, waited to read it until breakfast was over, and she could retire to her own room.

She opened the letter, looked at once for the name at the end, and started a little as she read it.  The signature was not “Norah Vanstone,” but “Harriet Garth.”

Miss Garth announced that the elder Miss Vanstone had, a week since, accepted an engagement as governess, subject to the condition of joining the family of her employer at their temporary residence in the south of France, and of returning with them when they came back to England, probably in a month or six weeks’ time.  During the interval of this necessary absence Miss Vanstone had requested Miss Garth to open all her letters, her main object in making that arrangement being to provide for the speedy answering of any communication which might arrive for her from her sister.  Miss Magdalen Vanstone had not written since the middle of July—­on which occasion the postmark on the letter showed that it must have been posted in London, in the district of Lambeth—­and her elder sister had left England in a state of the most distressing anxiety on her account.

Having completed this explanation, Miss Garth then mentioned that family circumstances prevented her from traveling personally to Aldborough to assist Mrs. Lecount’s object, but that she was provided with a substitute; in every way fitter for the purpose, in the person of Mr. Pendril.  That gentleman was well acquainted with Miss Magdalen Vanstone, and his professional experience and discretion would render his assistance doubly valuable.  He had kindly consented to travel to Aldborough whenever it might be thought necessary.  But as his time was very valuable, Miss Garth specially requested that he might not be sent for until Mrs. Lecount was quite sure of the day on which his services might be required.

While proposing this arrangement, Miss Garth added that she thought it right to furnish her correspondent with a written description of the younger Miss Vanstone as well.  An emergency might happen which would allow Mrs. Lecount no time for securing Mr. Pendril’s services; and the execution of Mr. Noel Vanstone’s intentions toward the unhappy girl who was the object of his forbearance might be fatally delayed by an unforeseen difficulty in establishing her identity.  The personal description, transmitted under these circumstances, then followed.  It omitted no personal peculiarity by which Magdalen could be recognized, and it included the “two little moles close together on the left side of the neck,” which had been formerly mentioned in the printed handbills sent to York.