'
"'Allonby is better than nothing,' said Mrs. Lecount. 'Allonby may help
you to trace her. Where is Allonby?'
"Norah told her. It all passed in a minute. I had been too much confused
and startled to interfere before, but I composed myself sufficiently to
interfere now.
"'You have entered into no particulars,' I said. 'You have only
frightened us--you have told us nothing.'
"'You shall hear the particulars, ma'am,' said Mrs. Lecount; 'and you
and Miss Vanstone shall judge for yourselves if I have frightened you
without a cause.'
"Upon this, she entered at once upon a long narrative, which I cannot--I
might almost say, which I dare not--repeat. You will understand the
horror we both felt when I tell you the end. If Mrs. Lecount's
statement is to be relied on, Magdalen has carried her mad resolution
of recovering her father's fortune to the last and most desperate
extremity--she has married Michael Vanstone's son under a false name.
Her husband is at this moment still persuaded that her maiden name was
Bygrave, and that she is really the niece of a scoundrel who assisted
her imposture, and whom I recognize, by the description of him, to have
been Captain Wragge.
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