Suspend your flirtation with the young lady
(I beg pardon of all other young ladies for calling her so!) until my
return. If, when I come back, I fail to prove to you that Miss Bygrave
is the woman who wore that disguise, and used those threatening words,
in Vauxhall Wall, I will engage to leave your service at a day's
notice; and I will atone for the sin of bearing false witness against my
neighbor by resigning every claim I have to your grateful remembrance,
on your father's account as well as on your own. I make this engagement
without reserves of any kind; and I promise to abide by it--if my proofs
fail--on the faith of a good Catholic, and the word of an honest woman.
Your faithful servant,
"VIRGINIE LECOUNT."
The closing sentences of this letter--as the housekeeper well knew when
she wrote them--embodied the one appeal to Noel Vanstone which could be
certainly trusted to produce a deep and lasting effect. She might have
staked her oath, her life, or her reputation, on proving the assertion
which she had made, and have failed to leave a permanent impression on
his mind. But when she staked not only her position in his service, but
her pecuniary claims on him as well, she at once absorbed the ruling
passion of his life in expectation of the result.
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