ore he had got beyond his first sentence.

"Pardon me, sir," said the captain, in his loftiest manner. "If you have
secrets to keep, you have only to say so, and I have done. I intrude on
no man's secrets. At the same time, Mr. Vanstone, you must allow me to
recall to your memory that I met you yesterday without any reserves on
my side. I admitted you to my frankest and fullest confidence, sir--and,
highly as I prize the advantages of your society, I can't consent to
cultivate your friendship on any other than equal terms." He threw open
his respectable frock-coat and surveyed his visitor with a manly and
virtuous severity.

"I mean no offense!" cried Noel Vanstone, piteously. "Why do you
interrupt me, Mr. Bygrave? Why don't you let me explain? I mean no
offense."

"No offense is taken, sir," said the captain. "You have a perfect right
to the exercise of your own discretion. I am not offended--I only claim
for myself the same privilege which I accord to you." He rose with great
dignity and rang the bell. "Tell Miss Bygrave," he said to the servant,
"that our walk this morning is put off until another opportunity, and
that I won't trouble her to come downstairs."

This strong proceeding had the desired effect. Noel Vanstone vehemently
pleaded for a moment's private conversation before the message was
delivered. Captain Wragge's severity partially relaxed. He sent the
servant downstairs again, and, resuming his chair, waited confidently
for results. In calculating the facilities for practicing on his
visitor's weakness, he had one great superiority over Mrs. Lecount. His
judgment was not warped by latent female jealousies, and he avoided the
error into which the housekeeper had fallen, self-deluded--the error of
underrating the impression on Noel Vanstone that Magdalen had produced.
One of the forces in this world which no middle-aged woman is capable of
estimating at its full value, when it acts against her, is the force of
beauty in a woman younger than herself.

"You are so hasty, Mr. Bygrave--you won't give me time--you won't wait
and hear what I have to say!" cried Noel Vanstone, piteously, when the
servant had closed the parlor door.

"My family failing, sir--the blood of the Bygraves. Accept my excuses.
We are alone, as you wished; pray proceed."

Placed between the alternatives of losing Magdalen's society or
betraying Mrs. Lecount, unenlightened by any suspicion of the
housekeeper's ultimate object, cowed