"My master is not up yet, ma'am."
Another check! A weaker nature would have accepted the warning.
Magdalen's nature rose in revolt against it.
"What time will Mrs. Lecount be back?" she asked.
"About one o'clock, ma'am."
"Say, if you please, that I will call again as soon after one o'clock
as possible. I particularly wish to see Mrs. Lecount. My name is Miss
Garth."
She turned and left the house. Going back to her own room was out of the
question. The servant (as Magdalen knew by not hearing the door close)
was looking after her; and, moreover, she would expose herself, if she
went indoors, to the risk of going out again exactly at the time when
the landlady's children were sure to be about the house. She turned
mechanically to the right, walked on until she recalled Vauxhall Bridge,
and waited there, looking out over the river.
The interval of unemployed time now before her was nearly an hour. How
should she occupy it?
As she asked herself the question, the thought which had struck her when
she put away the packet of Norah's letters rose in her mind once more. A
sudden impulse to test the miserable completeness of her disguise mixed
with the higher and purer feeling at her heart, and strengthened her
natural longing to see her sister's face again, though she dare not
discover herself and speak.
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