_Added by the Doctor._
"SIR--I beg to inform you that I was yesterday called into a neighbor"s in Vauxhall Walk to attend a young lady who had been suddenly taken ill.
I recovered her with great difficulty from one of the most obstinate fainting-fits I ever remember to have met with. Since that time she has had no relapse, but there is apparently some heavy distress weighing on her mind which it has. .h.i.therto been found impossible to remove. She sits, as I am informed, perfectly silent, and perfectly unconscious of what goes on about her, for hours together, with a letter in her hand which she will allow n.o.body to take from her. If this state of depression continues, very distressing mental consequences may follow; and I only do my duty in suggesting that some relative or friend should interfere who has influence enough to rouse her. Your obedient servant,
"RICHARD JARVIS, M.R.C.S."
VIII.
_From Norah to Magdalen._
"July 5th.
"For G.o.d"s sake, write me one line to say if you are still at Birmingham, and where I can find you there! I have just heard from old Mr. Clare. Oh, Magdalen, if you have no pity on yourself, have some pity on me! The thought of you alone among strangers, the thought of you heart-broken under this dreadful blow, never leaves me for an instant.
No words can tell how I feel for you! My own love, remember the better days at home before that cowardly villain stole his way into your heart; remember the happy time at Combe-Raven when we were always together.
Oh, don"t, don"t treat me like a stranger! We are alone in the world now--let me come and comfort you, let me be more than a sister to you, if I can. One line--only one line to tell me where I can find you!"
IX.
_From Magdalen to Norah._
"July 7th.
"MY DEAREST NORAH--All that your love for me can wish your letter has done. You, and you alone, have found your way to my heart. I could think again, I could feel again, after reading what you have written to me.
Let this a.s.surance quiet your anxieties. My mind lives and breathes once more--it was dead until I got your letter.
"The shock I have suffered has left a strange quietness in me. I feel as if I had parted from my former self--as if the hopes once so dear to me had all gone back to some past time from which I am now far removed. I can look at the wreck of my life more calmly, Norah, than you could look at it if we were both together again. I can trust myself already to write to Frank.
"My darling, I think no woman ever knows how utterly she has given herself up to the man she loves--until that man has ill-treated her. Can you pity my weakness if I confess to having felt a pang at my heart when I read that part of your letter which calls Frank a coward and a villain? n.o.body can despise me for this as I despise myself. I am like a dog who crawls back and licks the master"s hand that has beaten him. But it is so--I would confess it to n.o.body but you--indeed, indeed it is so. He has deceived and deserted me; he has written me a cruel farewell --but don"t call him a villain! If he repented and came back to me, I would die rather than marry him now--but it grates on me to see that word coward written against him in your hand! If he is weak of purpose, who tried his weakness beyond what it could bear? Do you think this would have happened if Michael Vanstone had not robbed us of our own, and forced Frank away from me to China? In a week from to-day the year of waiting would have come to an end, and I should have been Frank"s wife, if my marriage portion had not been taken from me.
"You will say, after what has hap pened, it is well that I have escaped.
My love! there is something perverse in my heart which answers, No!
Better have been Frank"s wretched wife than the free woman I am now.
"I have not written to him. He sends me no address at which I could write, even if I would. But I have not the wish. I will wait before I send him _my_ farewell. If a day ever comes when I have the fortune which my father once promised I should bring to him, do you know what I would do with it? I would send it all to Frank, as my revenge on him for his letter; as the last farewell word on my side to the man who has deserted me. Let me live for that day! Let me live, Norah, in the hope of better times for _you_, which is all the hope I have left. When I think of your hard life, I can almost feel the tears once more in my weary eyes. I can almost think I have come back again to my former self.
"You will not think me hard-hearted and ungrateful if I say that we must wait a little yet before we meet. I want to be more fit to see you than I am now. I want to put Frank further away from me, and to bring you nearer still. Are these good reasons? I don"t know--don"t ask me for reasons. Take the kiss I have put for you here, where the little circle is drawn on the paper; and let that bring us together for the present till I write again. Good-by, my love. My heart is true to you, Norah, but I dare not see you yet.
"MAGDALEN."
X.
_From Magdalen to Miss Garth._
"MY DEAR MISS GARTH--I have been long in answering your letter; but you know what has happened, and you will forgive me.
"All that I have to say may be said in a few words. You may depend on my never making the general Sense of Propriety my enemy again: I am getting knowledge enough of the world to make it my accomplice next time. Norah will never leave another situation on my account--my life as a public performer is at an end. It was harmless enough, G.o.d knows--I may live, and so may you, to mourn the day when I parted from it--but I shall never return to it again. It has left me, as Frank has left me, as all my better thoughts have left me except my thoughts of Norah.
"Enough of myself! Shall I tell you some news to brighten this dull letter? Mr. Michael Vanstone is dead, and Mr. Noel Vanstone has succeeded to the possession of my fortune and Norah"s. He is quite worthy of his inheritance. In his father"s place, he would have ruined us as his father did.
"I have no more to say that you would care to know. Don"t be distressed about me. I am trying to recover my spirits--I am trying to forget the poor deluded girl who was foolish enough to be fond of Frank in the old days at Combe-Raven. Sometimes a pang comes which tells me the girl won"t be forgotten--but not often.
"It was very kind of you, when you wrote to such a lost creature as I am, to sign yourself--_always my friend._ "Always" is a bold word, my dear old governess! I wonder whether you will ever want to recall it? It will make no difference if you do, in the grat.i.tude I shall always feel for the trouble you took with me when I was a little girl. I have ill repaid that trouble--ill repaid your kindness to me in after life. I ask your pardon and your pity. The best thing you can do for both of us is to forget me. Affectionately yours,
"MAGDALEN."
"P.S.--I open the envelope to add one line. For G.o.d"s sake, don"t show this letter to Norah!"
XI.
_From Magdalen to Captain Wragge._
"Vauxhall Walk, July 17th.
"If I am not mistaken, it was arranged that I should write to you at Birmingham as soon as I felt myself composed enough to think of the future. My mind is settled at last, and I am now able to accept the services which you have so unreservedly offered to me.
"I beg you will forgive the manner in which I received you on your arrival in this house, after hearing the news of my sudden illness. I was quite incapable of controlling myself--I was suffering an agony of mind which for the time deprived me of my senses. It is only your due that I should now thank you for treating me with great forbearance at a time when forbearance was mercy.
"I will mention what I wish you to do as plainly and briefly as I can.
"In the first place, I request you to dispose (as privately as possible) of every article of costume used in the dramatic Entertainment. I have done with our performances forever; and I wish to be set free from everything which might accidentally connect me with them in the future.
The key of my box is inclosed in this letter.
"The other box, which contains my own dresses, you will be kind enough to forward to this house. I do not ask you to bring it yourself, because I have a far more important commission to intrust to you.
"Referring to the note which you left for me at your departure, I conclude that you have by this time traced Mr. Noel Vanstone from Vauxhall Walk to the residence which he is now occupying. If you have made the discovery--and if you are quite sure of not having drawn the attention either of Mrs. Lecount or her master to yourself--I wish you to arrange immediately for my residing (with you and Mrs. Wragge) in the same town or village in which Mr. Noel Vanstone has taken up his abode.
I write this, it is hardly necessary to say, under the impression that, wherever he may now be living, he is settled in the place for some little time.
"If you can find a small furnished house for me on these conditions which is to be let by the month, take it for a month certain to begin with. Say that it is for your wife, your niece, and yourself, and use any a.s.sumed name you please, as long as it is a name that can be trusted to defeat the most suspicious inquiries. I leave this to your experience in such matters. The secret of who we really are must be kept as strictly as if it was a secret on which our lives depend.
"Any expenses to which you may be put in carrying out my wishes I will immediately repay. If you easily find the sort of house I want, there is no need for your returning to London to fetch us. We can join you as soon as we know where to go. The house must be perfectly respectable, and must be reasonably near to Mr. Noel Vanstone"s present residence, wherever that is.
"You must allow me to be silent in this letter as to the object which I have now in view. I am unwilling to risk an explanation in writing. When all our preparations are made, you shall hear what I propose to do from my own lips; and I shall expect you to tell me plainly, in return, whether you will or will not give me the help I want on the best terms which I am able to offer you.
"One word more before I seal up this letter.
"If any opportunity falls in your way after you have taken the house, and before we join you, of exchanging a few civil words either with Mr. Noel Vanstone or Mrs. Lecount, take advantage of it. It is very important to my present object that we should become acquainted with each other--as the purely accidental result of our being near neighbors.
I want you to smooth the way toward this end if you can, before Mrs.
Wragge and I come to you. Pray throw away no chance of observing Mrs.
Lecount, in particular, very carefully. Whatever help you can give me at the outset in blindfolding that woman"s sharp eyes will be the most precious help I have ever received at your hands.
"There is no need to answer this letter immediately--unless I have written it under a mistaken impression of what you have accomplished since leaving London. I have taken our lodgings on for another week; and I can wait to hear from you until you are able to send me such news as I wish to receive. You may be quite sure of my patience for the future, under all possible circ.u.mstances. My caprices are at an end, and my violent temper has tried your forbearance for the last time.
"MAGDALEN."