I called on him forthwith, and was stunned by the news of your illness.
Such, in brief, is the history of my existing connection with British
Medicine; and so it happens that you see me at the present moment
sitting in the present chair, now as ever, yours truly, Horatio Wragge."
In these terms the captain brought his personal statement to a close. He
looked more and more attentively at Magdalen, the nearer he got to the
conclusion. Was there some latent importance attaching to his last words
which did not appear on the face of them? There was. His visit to the
sick-room had a serious object, and that object he had now approached.
In describing the circumstances under which he had become acquainted
with Magdalen's present position, Captain Wragge had skirted, with his
customary dexterity, round the remote boundaries of truth. Emboldened
by the absence of any public scandal in connection with Noel Vanstone's
marriage, or with the event of his death as announced in the newspaper
obituary, the captain, roaming the eastern circuit, had ventured back to
Aldborough a fortnight since, to establish an agency there for the sale
of his wonderful Pill. No one had recognized him but the landlady of
the hotel, who at once insisted on his entering the house and reading
Kirke's letter to her husband.
Pages:
1147
1148
1149
1150
1151
1152
1153
1154
1155
1156
1157
1158
1159
1160
1161
1162
1163
1164
1165
1166
1167
1168
1169
1170
1171