nious friend. "The doctor always dates his letters. Here is no date
to yours."

"I leave the date to you," said the captain, with a sardonic smile. "You
have discovered the fault, my dear sir--pray correct it!"

Noel Vanstone mentally looked into the great gulf which separates the
faculty that can discover a defect, from the faculty that can apply
a remedy, and, following the example of many a wiser man, declined to
cross over it.

"I couldn't think of ta king the liberty," he said, politely. "Perhaps
you had a motive for leaving the date out?"

"Perhaps I had," replied Captain Wragge, with his easiest good-humor.
"The date must depend on the time a letter takes to get to Zurich. _I_
have had no experience on that point--_you_ must have had plenty
of experience in your father's time. Give me the benefit of
your information, and we will add the date before you leave the
writing-table."

Noel Vanstone's experience was, as Captain Wragge had anticipated,
perfectly competent to settle the question of time. The railway
resources of the Continent (in the year eighteen hundred and
forty-seven) were but scanty; and a letter sent at that period from
England to Zurich, and from Zurich back again to England, occupied ten
days in making the double journey by post.

"Date the letter in French five days on from to-morrow," said the
captain, when he had got his information. "Very good. The next thing is
to let me have the doctor's note as soon as you can. I may be obliged
to practice some hours before I can copy your translation in an
exact imitation of the doctor's handwriting. Have you got any foreign
note-paper? Let me have a few sheets, and send, at the same time, an
envelope addressed to one of those lady-friends of yours at Zurich,
accompanied by the necessary request to post the inclosure. This is all
I need trouble you to do, Mr. Vanstone. Don't let me seem inhospitable;
but the sooner you can supply me with my materials, the better I
shall be pleased. We entirely understand each other, I suppose? Having
accepted your proposal for my niece's hand, I sanction a private
marriage in consideration of the circumstances on your side. A little
harmless stratagem is necessary to forward your views. I invent the
stratagem at your request, and you make use of it without the least
hesitation. The result is, that in ten days from to-morrow Mrs. Lecount
will be on her way to Switzerland; in fifteen days from to-morrow Mrs.
Lecount