He withdrew to the window before he opened it.
The first lines that attracted his attention were these: "Oblige me, Mr.
Noel, by comparing the young lady who is now in your company with the
personal description which follows these lines, and which has been
communicated to me by a friend. You shall know the name of the person
described--which I have left a blank--as soon as the evidence of your
own eyes has forced you to believe what you would refuse to credit on
the unsupported testimony of Virginie Lecount."
That was enough for the captain. Before he had read a word of the
description itself, he knew what Mrs. Lecount had done, and felt, with
a profound sense of humiliation, that his female enemy had taken him by
surprise.
There was no time to think; the whole enterprise was threatened with
irrevocable overthrow. The one resource in Captain Wragge's present
situation was to act instantly on the first impulse of his own audacity.
Line by line he read on, and still the ready inventiveness which had
never deserted him yet failed to answer the call made on it now. He
came to the closing sentence--to the last words which mentioned the
two little moles on Magdalen's neck.
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