any object specially attracted his attention he half closed his eyelids
to look at it. When he smiled, the skin at his temples crumpled itself
up into a nest of wicked little wrinkles. He had a plate of strawberries
on his lap, with a napkin under them to preserve the purity of his white
dressing-gown. At his right hand stood a large round table, covered with
a collection of foreign curiosities, which seemed to have been brought
together from the four quarters of the globe. Stuffed birds from Africa,
porcelain monsters from China, silver ornaments and utensils from India
and Peru, mosaic work from Italy, and bronzes from France, were all
heaped together pell-mell with the coarse deal boxes and dingy
leather cases which served to pack them for traveling. The little man
apologized, with a cheerful and simpering conceit, for his litter of
curiosities, his dressing-gown, and his delicate health; and, waving his
hand toward a chair, placed his attention, with pragmatical politeness,
at the visitor's disposal. Magdalen looked at him with a momentary
doubt whether Mrs. Lecount had not deceived her. Was this the man who
mercilessly followed the path on which his merciless father had walked
before him? She could hardly believe it. "Take a seat, Miss Garth," he
repeated, observing her hesitation, and announcing his own name in a
high, thin, fretfully-consequential voice: "I am Mr. Noel Vanstone. You
wished to see me--here I am!"

"May I be permitted to retire, sir?" inquired Mrs. Lecount.

"Certainly not!" replied her master. "Stay here, Lecount, and keep
us company. Mrs. Lecount has my fullest confidence," he continued,
addressing Magdalen. "Whatever you say to me, ma'am, you say to her. She
is a domestic treasure. There is not another house in England has such a
treasure as Mrs. Lecount."

The housekeeper listened to the praise of her domestic virtues with
eyes immovably fixed on her elegant chemisette. But Magdalen's quick
penetration had previously detected a look that passed between Mrs.
Lecount and her master, which suggested that Noel Vanstone had been
instructed beforehand what to say and do in his visitor's presence.
The suspicion of this, and the obstacles which the room presented to
arranging her position in it so as to keep her face from the light,
warned Magdalen to be on her guard.

She had taken her chair at first nearly midway in the room. An instant's
after-reflection induced her to move her seat toward the le