While, however,
there was the faintest chance that the conspiracy might turn out to be
directed by a stranger, Miss Garth felt bound, in gratitude toward Mr.
Noel Vanstone, to assist the legal proceedings which would in that case
be instituted. She accordingly appended her own formal denial--which she
would personally repeat if necessary--of any identity between herself
and the person in disguise who had made use of her name. She was
the Miss Garth who had filled the situation of the late Mr. Andrew
Vanstone's governess, and she had never in her life been in, or near,
the neighborhood of Vauxhall Wall.
With this disclaimer, and with the writer's fervent assurances that she
would do all for Magdalen's advantage which her sister might have done
if her sister had been in England, the letter concluded. It was signed
in full, and was dated with the business-like accuracy in such matters
which had always distinguished Miss Garth's character.
This letter placed a formidable weapon in the housekeeper's hands.
It provided a means of establishing Magdalen's identity through
the intervention of a lawyer by profession. It contained a personal
description minute enough to be used to advantage, if necessary, before
Mr.
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