woman like
my house-maid, and not of a woman like you_. This last gain is a very
important one; for we don't know that Mrs. Armadale may not have told
him your maiden name. In that event, the 'Miss Gwilt' whom he will
describe as having slipped through his fingers here will be so entirely
unlike the 'Miss Gwilt' established at Thorpe Ambrose, as to satisfy
everybody that it is not a case of similarity of persons, but only a
case of similarity of names.

"What do you say now to my improvement on your idea? Are my brains not
quite so addled as you thought them when you wrote? Don't suppose I'm at
all overboastful about my own ingenuity. Cleverer tricks than this trick
of mine are played off on the public by swindlers, and are recorded in
the newspapers every week. I only want to show you that my assistance is
not less necessary to the success of the Armadale speculation now than
it was when I made our first important discoveries, by means of the
harmless-looking young man and the private inquiry office in Shadyside
Place.

"There is nothing more to say that I know of, except that I am just
going to start for the new lodging, with a box directed in my new name.
The last expiring moments of Mother Oldershaw, of the Toilet Repository,
are close at hand, and the birth of Miss Gwilt's respectable reference,
Mrs. Mandeville, will take place in a cab in five minutes' time. I fancy
I must be still young at heart, for I am quite in love already with my
romantic name; it sounds almost as pretty as Mrs. Armadale of Thorpe
Ambrose, doesn't it?

"Good-night, my dear, and pleasant dreams. If any accident happens
between this and Monday, write to me instantly by post. If no accident
happens you will be with me in excellent time for the earliest inquiries
that the major can possibly make. My last words are, don't go out, and
don't venture near the front windows till Monday comes.

"Affectionately yours,

"M. O."

VI. MIDWINTER IN DISGUISE.

Toward noon on the day of the twenty-first, Miss Milroy was loitering
in the cottage garden--released from duty in the sick-room by an
improvement in her mother's health--when her attention was attracted
by the sound of voices in the park. One of the voices she instantly
recognized as Allan's; the other was strange to her. She put aside the
branches of a shrub near the garden palings, and, peeping through,
saw Allan approaching the cottage gate, in company with a slim, dark,
undersize