“Trust me to remember it,” replied Magdalen, destroying the letter while she spoke.  “Have you anything more to tell me?”

“I have some information to give you,” said Captain Wragge, “which may be useful, because it relates to your future security.  Mind, I want to know nothing about your proceedings when to-morrow is over; we settled that when we first discussed this matter.  I ask no questions, and I make no guesses.  All I want to do now is to warn you of your legal position after your marriage, and to leave you to make what use you please of your knowledge, at your own sole discretion.  I took a lawyer’s opinion on the point when I was in London, thinking it might be useful to you.”

“It is sure to be useful.  What did the lawyer say?”

“To put it plainly, this is what he said.  If Mr. Noel Vanstone ever discovers that you have knowingly married him under a false name, he can apply to the Ecclesiastical Court to have his marriage declared null and void.  The issue of the application would rest with the judges.  But if he could prove that he had been intentionally deceived, the legal opinion is that his case would be a strong one.”

“Suppose I chose to apply on my side?” said Magdalen, eagerly.  “What then?”

“You might make the application,” replied the captain.  “But remember one thing—­you would come into Court with the acknowledgment of your own deception.  I leave you to imagine what the judges would think of that.”

“Did the lawyer tell you anything else?”

“One thing besides,” said Captain Wragge.  “Whatever the law might do with the marriage in the lifetime of both the parties to it—­on the death of either one of them, no application made by the survivor would avail; and, as to the case of that survivor, the marriage would remain valid.  You understand?  If he dies, or if you die—­and if no application has been made to the Court—­he the survivor, or you the survivor, would have no power of disputing the marriage.  But in the lifetime of both of you, if he claimed to have the marriage dissolved, the chances are all in favor of his carrying his point.”

He looked at Magdalen with a furtive curiosity as he said those words.  She turned her head aside, absently tying her watch-chain into a loop and untying it again, evidently thinking with the closest attention over what he had last said to her.  Captain Wragge walked uneasily to the window and looked out.  The first object that caught his eye was Mr. Noel Vanstone approaching from Sea View.  He returned instantly to his former place in the room, and addressed himself to Magdalen once more.

“Here is Mr. Noel Vanstone,” he said.  “One last caution before he comes in.  Be on your guard with him about your age.  He put the question to me before he got the License.  I took the shortest way out of the difficulty, and told him you were twenty-one, and he made the declaration accordingly.  Never mind about me; after to-morrow I am invisible.  But, in your own interests, don’t forget, if the subject turns up, that you were of age when you were married.  There is nothing more.  You are provided with every necessary warning that I can give you.  Whatever happens in the future, remember I have done my best.”