Noel Vanstone was easily accessible to visitors; he was walking in the
garden before breakfast. His disappointment and vexation were freely
expressed when he heard the news which his friend had to communicate.
The captain's fluent tongue, however, soon impressed on him the
necessity of resignation to present circumstances. The bare hint that
the "pious fraud" might fail after all, if anything happened in the
ten days' interval to enlighten Mrs. Lecount, had an instant effect in
making Noel Vanstone as patient and as submissive as could be wished.
"I won't tell you where we are going, for two good reasons," said
Captain Wragge, when his preliminary explanations were completed. "In
the first place, I haven't made up my mind yet; and, in the second
place, if you don't know where our destination is, Mrs. Lecount can't
worm it out of you. I have not the least doubt she is watching us at
this moment from behind her window-curtain. When she asks what I wanted
with you this morning, tell her I came to say good-by for a few days,
finding my niece not so well again, and wishing to take her on a short
visit to some friends to try change of air. If you could produce an
impression on Mrs.
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