Lecount's letter to her master, inclosed in one of the envelopes
which the captain had addressed to himself. He received it (by previous
arrangement with the waiter) in his bedroom--read it with the closest
attention--and put it away carefully in his pocketbook. The letter
was ominous of serious events to come when the housekeeper returned to
England; and it was due to Magdalen--who was the person threatened--to
place the warning of danger in her own possession.
Later in the day the fourth candidate appeared for the maid's
situation--a young woman of small expectations and subdued manners, who
looked (as the landlady remarked) like a person overtaken by misfortune.
She passed the ordeal of examination successfully, and accepted the
wages offered with out a murmur. The engagement having been ratified on
both sides, fresh delays ensued, of which Noel Vanstone was once more
the cause. He had not yet made up his mind whether he would, or would
not, give more than a guinea for the wedding-ring; and he wasted the
rest of the day to such disastrous purpose in one jeweler's shop after
another, that he and the captain, and the new lady's maid (who traveled
with them), were barely in time to catch the last train from London that
evening.
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