As she took up the letters to put them away, the
thought struck her for the first time, "Would Norah know me now if
we met each other in the street?" She looked in the glass, and smiled
sadly. "No," she said, "not even Norah."
She unlocked the door, after first looking at her watch. It was close
on twelve o'clock. There was barely an hour left to try her desperate
experiment, and to return to the lodging before the landlady's children
came back from school.
An instant's listening on the landing assured her that all was quiet in
the passage below. She noiselessly descended the stairs and gained the
street without having met any living creature on her way out of the
house. In another minute she had crossed the road, and had knocked at
Noel Vanstone's door.
The door was opened by the same woman-servant whom she had followed on
the previous evening to the stationer's shop. With a momentary tremor,
which recalled the memorable first night of her appearance in public,
Magdalen inquired (in Miss Garth's voice, and with Miss Garth's manner)
for Mrs. Lecount.
"Mrs. Lecount has gone out, ma'am," said the servant.
"Is Mr. Vanstone at home?" asked Magdalen, her resolution asserting
itself at once against the first obstacle that opposed it.
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