have certainly treated
that family with the most inexcusable neglect.

"Here I am at the end of my third sheet of note-paper! I don't often
take the pen in hand; but when I do, you will agree with me that I am in
no hurry to lay it aside again. Treat the rest of my letter as you like,
but consider what I have told you about Mrs. Lecount, and remember that
time is of consequence.

"Ever yours,

"GEORGE BARTRAM."

II.

_From Norah Vanstone to Miss Garth._

"Portland Place.

"MY DEAR MISS GARTH--More sorrow, more disappointment! I have just
returned from Aldborough, without making any discovery. Magdalen is
still lost to us.

"I cannot attribute this new overthrow of my hopes to any want of
perseverance or penetration in making the necessary inquiries. My
inexperience in such matters was most kindly and unexpectedly assisted
by Mr. George Bartram. By a strange coincidence, he happened to be at
Aldborough, inquiring after Mr. Noel Vanstone, at the very time when I
was there inquiring aft er Magdalen. He sent in his card, and knowing,
when I looked at the name, that he was my cousin--if I may call him
so--I thought there would be no impropriety in my seeing him and asking
his advice. I abstained from entering into particulars for Magdalen's
sake, and I made no allusion to that letter of Mrs. Lecount's which you
answered for me. I only told him Magdalen was missing, and had been last
heard of at Aldborough. The kindness which he showed in devoting himself
to my assistance exceeds all description. He treated me, in my forlorn
situation, with a delicacy and respect which I shall remember gratefully
long after he has himself perhaps forgotten our meeting altogether.
He is quite young--not more than thirty, I should think. In face
and figure, he reminded me a little of the portrait of my father at
Combe-Raven--I mean the portrait in the dining-room, of my father when
he was a young man.

"Useless as our inquiries were, there is one result of them which has
left a very strange and shocking impression on my mind.

"It appears that Mr. Noel Vanstone has lately married, under mysterious
circumstances, a young lady whom he met with at Aldborough, named
Bygrave. He has gone away with his wife, telling nobody but his lawyer
where he has gone to. This I heard from Mr. George Bartram, who was
endeavoring to trace him, for the purpose of communicating the news of
his housekeeper's serious illness--the housekeeper being the