and the fast-sailing yacht in which Mr.
Blanchard had come to Madeira was waiting in the harbor to take him back
to England. The only other alternative was to continue the deception by
suppressing the letter, and to confess the truth when they were securely
married. What arts of persuasion Ingleby used--what base advantage he
might previously have taken of her love and her trust in him to degrade
Miss Blanchard to his own level--I cannot say. He did degrade her. The
letter never went to its destination; and, with the daughter's privity
and consent, the father's confidence was abused to the very last.

"The one precaution now left to take was to fabricate the answer from
my mother which Mr. Blanchard expected, and which would arrive in due
course of post before the day appointed for the marriage. Ingleby had
my mother's stolen letter with him; but he was without the imitative
dexterity which would have enabled him to make use of it for a forgery
of her handwriting. Miss Blanchard, who had consented passively to the
deception, refused to take any active share in the fraud practiced on
her father. In this difficulty, Ingleby found an instrument ready to
his hand in an orphan girl of barely twelve years old, a marvel of
precocious ability, whom Miss Blanchard had taken a romantic fancy
to befriend and whom she had brought away with her from England to
be trained as her maid. That girl's wicked dexterity removed the one
serious obstacle left to the success of the fraud. I saw the imitation
of my mother's writing which she had produced under Ingleby's
instructions and (if the shameful truth must be told) with her young
mistress's knowledge--and I believe I should have been deceived by it
myself. I saw the girl afterward--and my blood curdled at the sight of
her. If she is alive now, woe to the people who trust her! No creature
more innately deceitful and more innately pitiless ever walked this
earth.

"The forged letter paved the way securely for the marriage; and when I
reached the house, they were (as the servant had truly told me) man and
wife. My arrival on the scene simply precipitated the confession
which they had both agreed to make. Ingleby's own lips shamelessly
acknowledged the truth. He had nothing to lose by speaking out--he was
married, and his wife's fortune was beyond her father's control. I pass
over all that followed--my interview with the daughter, and my interview
with the father--to come to results. For t