Under these circumstances, what was the safe course to take with her
master?
If she candidly told him, when they met the next morning, what had
passed through her mind that night, her knowledge of Noel Vanstone
warned her that one of two results would certainly happen. Either he
would be angry and disputatious; would ask for proofs; and, finding none
forthcoming, would accuse her of alarming him without a cause, to serve
her own jealous end of keeping Magdalen out of the house; or he would
be seriously startled, would clamor for the protection of the law, and
would warn the Bygraves to stand on their defense at the outset. If
Magdalen only had been concerned in the plot this latter consequence
would have assumed no great importance in the housekeeper's mind. But
seeing the deception as she now saw it, she was far too clever a woman
to fail in estimating the captain's inexhaustible fertility of resource
at its true value. "If I can't meet this impudent villain with plain
proofs to help me," thought Mrs. Lecount, "I may open my master s eyes
to-morrow morning, and Mr. Bygrave will shut them up again before night.
The rascal is playing with all his own cards under the table, and he
will win the game to a certainty, if he sees my hand at starting.
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