y loved him: he gave me a second chance of
telling him so, after I had lost the first, and, as you see, I was wise
enough to take it. You ought to be especially interested, my love,
in this marriage, for you are the cause of it. If I had not gone to
Aldborough to search for the lost trace of you--if George had not
been brought there at the same time by circumstances in which you were
concerned, my husband and I might never have met. When we look back to
our first impressions of each other, we look back to _you_.

"I must keep my promise not to weary you; I must bring this letter
(sorely against my will) to an end. Patience! patience! I shall see you
soon. George and I are both coming to London to take you back with us to
Ventnor. This is my husband's invitation, mind, as well as mine. Don't
suppose I married him, Magdalen, until I had taught him to think of you
as I think--to wish with my wishes, and to hope with my hopes. I could
say so much more about this, so much more about George, if I might only
give my thoughts and my pen their own way; but I must leave Miss Garth
(at her own special request) a blank space to fill up on the last
page of this letter; and I must only add one word more before I say
good-by--a word to warn you that I have another surprise in store, which
I am keeping in reserve until we meet. Don't attempt to guess what it
is. You might guess for ages, and be no nearer than you are now to the
discovery of the truth. Your affectionate sister,

"NORAH BARTRAM."

_(Added by Miss Garth.)_

"MY DEAR CHILD--If I had ever lost my old loving recollection of you,
I should feel it in my heart again now, when I know that it has pleased
God to restore you to us from the brink of the grave. I add these lines
to your sister's letter because I am not sure that you are quite so fit
yet, as she thinks you, to accept her proposal. She has not said a
word of her husband or herself which is not true. But Mr. Bartram is a
stranger to you; and if you think you can recover more easily and more
pleasantly to yourself under the wing of your old governess than under
the protection of your new brother-in-law, come to me first, and trust
to my reconciling Norah to the change of plans. I have secured the
refusal of a little cottage at Shanklin, near enough to your sister to
allow of your seeing each other whenever you like, and far enough away,
at the same time, to secure you the privilege, when you wish it, of
being alone.