l be very tidy, captain; I'll keep in my own corner, if you'll
please to give me one; and whether my head Buzzes, or whether it don't,
I'll sit straight at my work all the same."

"You will do your work," said the captain, sternly, "when you know who
you are, who I am, and who that young lady is--not before. Show me your
shoes! Good. Show me you cap! Good. Make the breakfast."

When breakfast was over, Mrs. Wragge received her orders to retire into
an adjoining room, and to wait there until her husband came to release
her. As soon as her back was turned, Captain Wragge at once resumed the
conversation which had been suspended, by Magdalen's own desire, on
the preceding night. The questions he now put to her all related to the
subject of her visit in disguise to Noel Vanstone's house. They were
the questions of a thoroughly clear-headed man--short, searching, and
straight to the point. In less than half an hour's time he had made
himself acquainted with every incident that had happened in Vauxhall
Walk.

The conclusions which the captain drew, after gaining his information,
were clear and easily stated.

On the adverse side of the question, he expressed his conviction that
Mrs. Lecount had certainly detected her visitor to be disguised; that
she had never really left the room, though she might have opened and
shut the door; and that on both the occasions, therefore, when Magdalen
had been betrayed into speaking in her own voice, Mrs. Lecount had heard
her. On the favorable side of the question, he was perfectly satisfied
that the painted face and eyelids, the wig, and the padded cloak had
so effectually concealed Magdalen's identity, that she might in her own
person defy the housekeeper's closest scrutiny, so far as the matter
of appearance was concerned. The difficulty of deceiving Mrs. Lecount's
ears, as well as her eyes, was, he readily admitted, not so easily to
be disposed of. But looking to the fact that Magdalen, on both the
occasions when she had forgotten herself, had spoken in the heat of
anger, he was of opinion that her voice had every reasonable chance of
escaping detection, if she carefully avoided all outbursts of temper for
the future, and spoke in those more composed and ordinary tones which
Mrs. Lecount had not yet heard. Upon the whole, the captain was inclined
to pronounce the prospect hopeful, if one serious obstacle were cleared
away at the outset--that obstacle being nothing less than the presen