ump of
opaque color which he had mixed in a saucer, and which he had graduated
as nearly as the materials would permit to the color of Magdalen's skin.
After first passing a cambric handkerchief, with some white powder on
it, over the part of her neck on which he designed to operate, he placed
two layers of color on the moles with the tip of the brush. The
process was performed in a few moments, and the moles, as if by magic,
disappeared from view. Nothing but the closest inspection could have
discovered the artifice by which they had been concealed; at the
distance of two or three feet only, it was perfectly invisible.

"Wait here five minutes," said Captain Wragge, "to let the paint
dry--and then join us in the parlor. Mrs. Lecount herself would be
puzzled if she looked at you now."

"Stop!" said Magdalen. "There is one thing you have not told me yet. How
did Mrs. Lecount get the description which you read downstairs? Whatever
else she has seen of me, she has not seen the mark on my neck--it is too
far back, and too high up; my hair hides it."

"Who knows of the mark?" asked Captain Wragge.

She turned deadly pale under the anguish of a sudden recollection of
Frank.

"My sister knows it," s he said, faintly.

"Mrs. Lecount may have written to your sister," suggested the captain:

"Do you think my sister would tell a stranger what no stranger has a
right to know? Never! never!"

"Is there nobody else who could tell Mrs. Lecount? The mark was
mentioned in the handbills at York. Who put it there?"

"Not Norah! Perhaps Mr. Pendril. Perhaps Miss Garth."

"Then Mrs. Lecount has written to Mr. Pendril or Miss Garth--more likely
to Miss Garth. The governess would be easier to deal with than the
lawyer."

"What can she have said to Miss Garth?"

Captain Wragge considered a little.

"I can't say what Mrs. Lecount may have written," he said, "but I can
tell you what I should have written in Mrs. Lecount's place. I should
have frightened Miss Garth by false reports about you, to begin with,
and then I should have asked for personal particulars, to help a
benevolent stranger in restoring you to your friends." The angry glitter
flashed up instantly in Magdalen's eyes.

"What _you_ would have done is what Mrs. Lecount has done," she said,
indignantly. "Neither lawyer nor governess shall dispute my right to my
own will and my own way. If Miss Garth thinks she can control my actions
by corresponding with Mrs. Lecount