"Very well. Come out, then."
With a weary sigh she took up her straw bonnet and her light muslin
scarf from the side-table upon which she had thrown them on coming in,
and carelessly led the way to the door. Captain Wragge followed her to
the garden gate, then stopped, struck by a new idea.
"Excuse me," he whispered, confidentially. "In my wife's existing state
of ignorance as to who she is, we had better not trust her alone in the
house with a new servant. I'll privately turn the key on her, in case
she wakes before we come back. Safe bind, safe find--you know the
proverb!--I will be with you again in a moment."
He hastened back to the house, and Magdalen seated herself on the garden
wall to await his return.
She had hardly settled herself in that position when two gentlemen
walking together, whose approach along the public path she had not
previously noticed, passed close by her.
The dress of one of the two strangers showed him to be a clergyman.
His companion's station in life was less easily discernible to ordinary
observation. Practiced eyes would probably have seen enough in his look,
his manner, and his walk to show that he was a sailor.
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