. I don't think she has any idea what a strong house it is. Come
and survey my premises, Miss Bygrave. You shall have a stick and rap on
the walls; you shall go upstairs and stamp on the floors, and then you
shall hear what it all cost." His eyes wrinkled up cunningly at the
corners, and he slipped another tender speech into Magdalen's ear, under
cover of the all-predominating voice in which Captain Wragge thanked him
for the invitation. "Come punctually at seven," he whispered, "and pray
wear that charming hat!"

Mrs. Lecount's lips closed ominously. She set down the captain's niece
as a very serious drawback to the intellectual luxury of the captain's
society.

"You are fatiguing yourself, sir," she said to her master. "This is one
of your bad days. Let me recommend you to be careful; let me beg you to
walk back."

Having carried his point by inviting the new acquaintances to tea, Noel
Vanstone proved to be unexpectedly docile. He acknowledged that he was
a little fatigued, and turned back at once in obedience to the
housekeeper's advice.

"Take my arm, sir--take my arm on the other side," said Captain Wragge,
as they turned to retrace their steps. His party-colored eyes looked
significantly at Magdalen while he spoke, and warned her not to stretch
Mrs. Lecount's endurance too far at starting. She instantly understood
him; and, in spite of Noel Vanstone's reiterated assertions that he
stood in no need of the captain's arm, placed herself at once by the
housekeeper's side. Mrs. Lecount recovered her good-humor, and opened
another conversation with Magdalen by making the one inquiry of all
others which, under existing circumstances, was the hardest to answer.

"I presume Mrs. Bygrave is too tired, after her journey, to come out
to-day?" said Mrs. Lecount. "Shall we have the pleasure of seeing her
tomorrow?"

"Probably not," replied Magdalen. "My aunt is in delicate health."

"A complicated case, my dear madam," added the captain; conscious
that Mrs. Wragge's personal appearance (if she happened to be seen by
accident) would offer the flattest of all possible contradictions
to what Magdalen had just said of her. "There is some remote nervous
mischief which doesn't express itself externally. You would think my
wife the picture of health if you looked at her, and yet, so delusive
are appearances, I am obliged to forbid her all excitement. She sees no
society--our medical attendant, I regret to say, absolutely prohi