or old nose? Is there anything in
the world to prevent your safe disappearance from Pimlico to-night,
and your safe establishment at the new lodgings, in the character of
my respectable reference, half an hour afterward? Oh, fie, fie, Mother
Oldershaw! Go down on your wicked old knees, and thank your stars that
you had a she-devil like me to deal with this morning!

"Suppose we come now to the only difficulty worth mentioning--_my_
difficulty. Watched as I am in this house, how am I to join you without
bringing the parson or the parson's servant with me at my heels?

"Being to all intents and purposes a prisoner here, it seems to me that
I have no choice but to try the old prison plan of escape: a change of
clothes. I have been looking at your house-maid. Except that we are both
light, her face and hair and my face and hair are as unlike each other
as possible. But she is as nearly as can be my height and size; and (if
she only knew how to dress herself, and had smaller feet) her figure is
a very much better one than it ought to be for a person in her station
in life.

"My idea is to dress her in the clothes I wore in the Gardens to-day;
to send her out, with our reverend enemy in full pursuit of her; and, as
soon as the coast is clear, to slip away myself and join you. The thing
would be quite impossible, of course, if I had been seen with my veil
up; but, as events have turned out, it is one advantage of the horrible
exposure which followed my marriage that I seldom show myself in public,
and never, of course, in such a populous place as London, without
wearing a thick veil and keeping that veil down. If the house-maid wears
my dress, I don't really see why the house-maid may not be counted on to
represent me to the life.

"The one question is, Can the woman be trusted? If she can, send me a
line, telling her, on your authority, that she is to place herself at my
disposal. I won't say a word till I have heard from you first.

"Let me have my answer to-night. As long as we were only talking about
my getting the governess's place, I was careless enough how it ended.
But now that we have actually answered Major Milroy's advertisement, I
am in earnest at last. I mean to be Mrs. Armadale of Thorpe Ambrose; and
woe to the man or woman who tries to stop me! Yours,

"LYDIA GWILT.

"P.S.--I open my letter again to say that you need have no fear of your
messenger being followed on his return to Pimlico. He will drive to