_From Magdalen to Captain Wragge._
"Vauxhall Walk, July 17th.
"If I am not mistaken, it was arranged that I should write to you at
Birmingham as soon as I felt myself composed enough to think of the
future. My mind is settled at last, and I am now able to accept the
services which you have so unreservedly offered to me.
"I beg you will forgive the manner in which I received you on your
arrival in this house, after hearing the news of my sudden illness. I
was quite incapable of controlling myself--I was suffering an agony of
mind which for the time deprived me of my senses. It is only your due
that I should now thank you for treating me with great forbearance at a
time when forbearance was mercy.
"I will mention what I wish you to do as plainly and briefly as I can.
"In the first place, I request you to dispose (as privately as possible)
of every article of costume used in the dramatic Entertainment. I have
done with our performances forever; and I wish to be set free from
everything which might accidentally connect me with them in the future.
The key of my box is inclosed in this letter.
"The other box, which contains my own dresses, you will be kind enough
to forward to this house. I do not ask you to bring it yourself, because
I have a far more important commission to intrust to you.
"Referring to the note which you left for me at your departure, I
conclude that you have by this time traced Mr. Noel Vanstone from
Vauxhall Walk to the residence which he is now occupying. If you have
made the discovery--and if you are quite sure of not having drawn the
attention either of Mrs. Lecount or her master to yourself--I wish you
to arrange immediately for my residing (with you and Mrs. Wragge) in the
same town or village in which Mr. Noel Vanstone has taken up his abode.
I write this, it is hardly necessary to say, under the impression that,
wherever he may now be living, he is settled in the place for some
little time.
"If you can find a small furnished house for me on these conditions
which is to be let by the month, take it for a month certain to begin
with. Say that it is for your wife, your niece, and yourself, and use
any assumed name you please, as long as it is a name that can be trusted
to defeat the most suspicious inquiries. I leave this to your experience
in such matters. The secret of who we really are must be kept as
strictly as if it was a secret on which our lives depend.
"Any expenses to which you may be put in carrying out my wishes I will
immediately repay. If you easily find the sort of house I want, there
is no need for your returning to London to fetch us. We can join you as
soon as we know where to go. The house must be perfectly respectable,
and must be reasonably near to Mr. Noel Vanstone's present residence,
wherever that is.
"You must allow me to be silent in this letter as to the object which I
have now in view. I am unwilling to risk an explanation in writing. When
all our preparations are made, you shall hear what I propose to do
from my own lips; and I shall expect you to tell me plainly, in return,
whether you will or will not give me the help I want on the best terms
which I am able to offer you.
"One word more before I seal up this letter.
"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."