If the inquiries could be made by a stranger, without my being
seen in the matter, a service would be rendered me of much greater
importance than the service you offered last night."
Captain Wragge's vagabond face became gravely and deeply attentive.
"May I ask," he said, "what the nature of the inquiries is likely to
be?"
Magdalen hesitated. She had necessarily mentioned Michael Vanstone's
name in informing the captain of the loss of her inheritance. She must
inevitably mention it to him again if she employed his services.
He would doubtless discover it for himself, by a plain process of
inference, before she said many words more, frame them as carefully as
she might. Under these circumstances, was there any intelligible reason
for shrinking from direct reference to Michael Vanstone? No intelligible
reason--and yet she shrank.
"For instance," pursued Captain Wragge, "are they inquiries about a man
or a woman; inquiries about an enemy or a friend--?"
"An enemy," she answered, quickly.
Her reply might still have kept the captain in the dark--but her eyes
enlightened him. "Michael Vanstone!" thought the wary Wragge. "She looks
dangerous; I'll feel my way a little further.
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