The kindness which he showed in devoting himself
to my assistance exceeds all description. He treated me, in my forlorn
situation, with a delicacy and respect which I shall remember gratefully
long after he has himself perhaps forgotten our meeting altogether.
He is quite young--not more than thirty, I should think. In face
and figure, he reminded me a little of the portrait of my father at
Combe-Raven--I mean the portrait in the dining-room, of my father when
he was a young man.
"Useless as our inquiries were, there is one result of them which has
left a very strange and shocking impression on my mind.
"It appears that Mr. Noel Vanstone has lately married, under mysterious
circumstances, a young lady whom he met with at Aldborough, named
Bygrave. He has gone away with his wife, telling nobody but his lawyer
where he has gone to. This I heard from Mr. George Bartram, who was
endeavoring to trace him, for the purpose of communicating the news of
his housekeeper's serious illness--the housekeeper being the same Mrs.
Lecount whose letter you answered. So far, you may say, there is nothing
which need particularly interest either of us. But I think you will be
as much surprised as I was when I tell you that the description given
by the people at Aldborough of Miss Bygrave's appearance is most
startlingly and unaccountably like the description of Magdalen's
appearance.
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