"Dirt cheap!" cried poor Mrs. Wragge, falling headlong into the snare,
and darting at the parcel as eagerly as if nothing had happened.
Magdalen kept her gossiping over her purchases for an hour or more,
and then wisely determined to distract her attention from all ghostly
recollections in another way by taking her out for a walk.
As they left the lodgings, the door of Noel Vanstone's house opened, and
the woman-servant appeared, bent on another errand. She was apparently
charged with a letter on this occasion which she carried carefully in
her hand. Conscious of having formed no plan yet either for attack or
defense, Magdalen wondered, with a momentary dread, whether Mrs. Lecount
had decided already on opening fresh communications, and whether the
letter was directed to "Miss Garth."
The let ter bore no such address. Noel Vanstone had solved his pecuniary
problem at last. The blank space in the advertisement was filled up, and
Mrs. Lecount's acknowledgment of the captain's anonymous warning was now
on its way to insertion in the _Times_.
THE END OF THE THIRD SCENE.
BETWEEN THE SCENES.
PROGRESS OF THE STORY THROUGH THE POST.
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