ded, under cover to your friend Mr. Bygrave, by
your own particular request, she turned as pale as ashes; and when we
added that you had left us in company with this same Mr. Bygrave, she
clasped her hands and stared at us as if she had taken leave of her
senses. Her next question was, 'Where is Mr. Noel now?' We could only
give her one reply--Mr. Noel had not informed us. She looked perfectly
thunderstruck at that answer. 'He has gone to his ruin!' she said. 'He
has gone away in company with the greatest villain in England. I must
find him! I tell you I must find Mr. Noel! If I don't find him at
once, it will be too late. He will be married!' she burst out quite
frantically. 'On my honor and my oath, he will be married!' The admiral,
incautiously perhaps, but with the best intentions, told her you were
married already. She gave a scream that made the windows ring again and
dropped back on the sofa in a fainting-fit. The doctor came in the nick
of time, and soon brought her to. But she was taken ill the same night;
she has grown worse and worse ever since; and the last medical report
is, that the fever from which she has been suffering is in a fair way to
settle on her brain.

"Now, my dear Noel, neither my uncle nor I have any wish to intrude
ourselves on your confidence. We are naturally astonished at the
extraordinary mystery which hangs over you and your marriage, and we
cannot be blind to the fact that your housekeeper has, apparently, some
strong reason of her own for viewing Mrs. Noel Vanstone with an enmity
and distrust which we are quite ready to believe that lady has done
nothing to deserve. Whatever strange misunderstanding there may have
been in your household, is your business (if you choose to keep it to
yourself), and not ours. All we have any right to do is to tell you what
the doctor says. His patient has been delirious; he declines to
answer for her life if she goes on as she is going on now; and he
thinks--finding that she is perpetually talking of her master--that
your presence would be useful in quieting her, if you could come here at
once, and exert your influence before it is too late.

"What do you say? Will you emerge from the darkness that surrounds you
and come to St. Crux? If this was the case of an ordinary servant, I
could understand your hesitating to leave the delights of your honeymoon
for any such object as is here proposed to you. But, my dear fellow,
Mrs. Lecount is not an ordinary s