Magdalen read the letter thankfully, but her thoughts wandered from it, and followed Kirke on his return to the City.  What was the business which had once already taken him there in the morning?  And why had the promise exchanged between them obliged him to go to the City again, for the second time in one day?

Was it by any chance business relating to the sea?  Were his employers tempting him to go back to his ship?

CHAPTER IV.

THE first agitation of the meeting between the sisters was over; the first vivid impressions, half pleasurable, half painful, had softened a little, and Norah and Magdalen sat together hand in hand, each rapt in the silent fullness of her own joy.  Magdalen was the first to speak.

“You have something to tell me, Norah?”

“I have a thousand things to tell you, my love; and you have ten thousand things to tell me.—­Do you mean that second surprise which I told you of in my letter?”

“Yes.  I suppose it must concern me very nearly, or you would hardly have thought of mentioning it in your first letter?”

“It does concern you very nearly.  You have heard of George’s house in Essex?  You must be familiar, at least, with the name of St. Crux?—­What is there to start at, my dear?  I am afraid you are hardly strong enough for any more surprises just yet?”

“Quite strong enough, Norah.  I have something to say to you about St. Crux—­I have a surprise, on my side, for you.”

“Will you tell it me now?”

“Not now.  You shall know it when we are at the seaside; you shall know it before I accept the kindness which has invited me to your husband’s house.”

“What can it be?  Why not tell me at once?”

“You used often to set me the example of patience, Norah, in old times; will you set me the example now?”

“With all my heart.  Shall I return to my own story as well?  Yes?  Then we will go back to it at once.  I was telling you that St. Crux is George’s house, in Essex, the house he inherited from his uncle.  Knowing that Miss Garth had a curiosity to see the place, he left word (when he went abroad after the admiral’s death) that she and any friends who came with her were to be admitted, if she happened to find herself in the neighborhood during his absence.  Miss Garth and I, and a large party of Mr. Tyrrel’s friends, found ourselves in the neighborhood not long after George’s departure.  We had all been invited to see the launch of Mr. Tyrrel’s new yacht from the builder’s yard at Wivenhoe, in Essex.  When the launch was over, the rest of the company returned to Colchester to dine.  Miss Garth and I contrived to get into the same carriage together, with nobody but my two little pupils for our companions.  We gave the coachman his orders, and drove round by St. Crux.  The moment Miss Garth mentioned her name we were let in, and shown all over the house.  I don’t know how to describe it to you.  It is the most bewildering place I ever saw in my life—­”