gain to my former self.

"You will not think me hard-hearted and ungrateful if I say that we must
wait a little yet before we meet. I want to be more fit to see you than
I am now. I want to put Frank further away from me, and to bring you
nearer still. Are these good reasons? I don't know--don't ask me for
reasons. Take the kiss I have put for you here, where the little circle
is drawn on the paper; and let that bring us together for the present
till I write again. Good-by, my love. My heart is true to you, Norah,
but I dare not see you yet.

"MAGDALEN."

X.

_From Magdalen to Miss Garth._

"MY DEAR MISS GARTH--I have been long in answering your letter; but you
know what has happened, and you will forgive me.

"All that I have to say may be said in a few words. You may depend on my
never making the general Sense of Propriety my enemy again: I am getting
knowledge enough of the world to make it my accomplice next time. Norah
will never leave another situation on my account--my life as a public
performer is at an end. It was harmless enough, God knows--I may live,
and so may you, to mourn the day when I parted from it--but I shall
never return to it again. It has left me, as Frank has left me, as all
my better thoughts have left me except my thoughts of Norah.

"Enough of myself! Shall I tell you some news to brighten this dull
letter? Mr. Michael Vanstone is dead, and Mr. Noel Vanstone has
succeeded to the possession of my fortune and Norah's. He is quite
worthy of his inheritance. In his father's place, he would have ruined
us as his father did.

"I have no more to say that you would care to know. Don't be distressed
about me. I am trying to recover my spirits--I am trying to forget the
poor deluded girl who was foolish enough to be fond of Frank in the
old days at Combe-Raven. Sometimes a pang comes which tells me the girl
won't be forgotten--but not often.

"It was very kind of you, when you wrote to such a lost creature as I
am, to sign yourself--_always my friend._ 'Always' is a bold word, my
dear old governess! I wonder whether you will ever want to recall it? It
will make no difference if you do, in the gratitude I shall always feel
for the trouble you took with me when I was a little girl. I have ill
repaid that trouble--ill repaid your kindness to me in after life. I ask
your pardon and your pity. The best thing you can do for both of us is
to forget me. Affectionately yours,

"MAGDALEN."

"P.S.