"I have nothing to do with our stay at Aldborough," he broke out,
peevishly. "You know as well as I do, Lecount, it all depends on _you_.
Mrs. Lecount has a brother in Switzerland," he went on, addressing
himself to the captain--"a brother who is seriously ill. If he gets
worse, she will have to go the re to see him. I can't accompany her,
and I can't be left in the house by myself. I shall have t o break up my
establishment at Aldborough, and stay with some friends. It all depends
on you, Lecount--or on your brother, which comes to the same thing. If
it depended on _me_," continued Mr. Noel Vanstone, looking pointedly
at Magdalen across the housekeeper, "I should stay at Aldborough
all through the autumn with the greatest pleasure. With the greatest
pleasure," he reiterated, repeating the words with a tender look for
Magdalen, and a spiteful accent for Mrs. Lecount.
Thus far Captain Wragge had remained silent; carefully noting in his
mind the promising possibilities of a separation between Mrs. Lecount
and her master which Noel Vanstone's little fretful outbreak had just
disclosed to him. An ominous trembling in the housekeeper's thin lips,
as her master openly exposed her family affairs before strangers, and
openly set her jealously at defiance, now warned him to interfere.
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