there
isn't a slyer fox alive than I am. If, at your express request, I take
off my honest English coat here and put on a Jesuit's gown--if, purely
out of sympathy for your awkward position, I consent to keep your secret
for you from Mrs. Lecount--I must have no unseasonable scruples to
contend with on your part. If it is neck or nothing on my side, sir, it
must be neck or nothing on yours also."

"Neck or nothing, by all means," said Noel Vanstone, briskly--"on
the understanding that you go first. I have no scruples about keeping
Lecount in the dark. But she is devilish cunning, Mr. Bygrave. How is it
to be done?"

"You shall hear directly," replied the captain. "Before I develop my
views, I should like to have your opinion on an abstract question of
morality. What do you think, my dear sir, of pious frauds in general?"

Noel Vanstone looked a little embarrassed by the question.

"Shall I put it more plainly?" continued Captain Wragge. "What do you
say to the universally-accepted maxim that 'all stratagems are fair in
love and war'?--Yes or No?"

"Yes!" answered Noel Vanstone, with the utmost readiness.

"One more question and I have done," said the captain. "Do you see any
particular objection to practicing a pious fraud on Mrs. Lecount?"

Noel Vanstone's resolution began to falter a little.

"Is Lecount likely to find it out?" he asked cautiously.

"She can't possibly discover it until you are married and out of her
reach."

"You are sure of that?"

"Quite sure."

"Play any trick you like on Lecount," said Noel Vanstone, with an air of
unutterable relief. "I have had my suspicions lately that she is trying
to domineer over me; I am beginning to feel that I have borne with
Lecount long enough. I wish I was well rid of her."

"You shall have your wish," said Captain Wragge. "You shall be rid of
her in a week or ten days."

Noel Vanstone rose eagerly and approached the captain's chair.

"You don't say so!" he exclaimed. "How do you mean to send her away?"

"I mean to send her on a journey," replied Captain Wragge.

"Where?"

"From your house at Aldborough to her brother's bedside at Zurich."

Noel Vanstone started back at the answer, and returned suddenly to his
chair.

"How can you do that?" he inquired, in the greatest perplexity. "Her
brother (hang him!) is much better. She had another letter from Zurich
to say so, this morning."

"Did you see the letter?"

"Yes. She always worries about