“The ship touched at the Cape of Good Hope.  Among his other acts of folly Captain Kirke took a woman passenger on board at that place—­not a young woman by any means—­the elderly widow of a rich colonist.  Is it necessary to say that she forthwith became deeply interested in Frank and his misfortunes?  Is it necessary to tell you what followed?  Look back at my son’s career, and you will see that what followed was all of a piece with what went before.  He didn’t deserve your poor father’s interest in him—­and he got it.  He didn’t deserve your attachment—­and he got it.  He didn’t deserve the best place in one of the best offices in London; he didn’t deserve an equally good chance in one of the best mercantile houses in China; he didn’t deserve food, clothing, pity, and a free passage home—­and he got them all.  Last, not least, he didn’t even deserve to marry a woman old enough to be his grandmother—­and he has done it!  Not five minutes since I sent his wedding-cards out to the dust-hole, and tossed the letter that came with them into the fire.  The last piece of information which that letter contains is that he and his wife are looking out for a house and estate to suit them.  Mark my words!  Frank will get one of the best estates in England; a seat in the House of Commons will follow as a matter of course; and one of the legislators of this Ass-ridden country will be—­MY LOUT!

“If you are the sensible girl I have always taken you for, you have long since learned to rate Frank at his true value, and the news I send you will only confirm your contempt for him.  I wish your poor father could but have lived to see this day!  Often as I have missed my old gossip, I don’t know that I ever felt the loss of him so keenly as I felt it when Frank’s wedding-cards and Frank’s letter came to this house.  Your friend, if you ever want one,

“FRANCIS CLARE, Sen.”

With one momentary disturbance of her composure, produced by the appearance of Kirke’s name in Mr. Clare’s singular narrative, Magdalen read the letter steadily through from beginning to end.  The time when it could have distressed her was gone by; the scales had long since fallen from her eyes.  Mr. Clare himself would have been satisfied if he had seen the quiet contempt on her face as she laid aside his letter.  The only serious thought it cost her was a thought in which Kirke was concerned.  The careless manner in which he had referred in her presence to the passengers on board his ship, without mentioning any of them by their names, showed her that Frank must have kept silence on the subject of the engagement once existing between them.  The confession of that vanished delusion was left for her to make, as part of the story of the past which she had pledged herself unreservedly to reveal.

She wrote to Miss Garth, and sent the letter to the post immediately.

The next morning brought a line of rejoinder.  Miss Garth had written to secure the cottage at Shanklin, and Mr. Merrick had consented to Magdalen’s removal on the following day.  Norah would be the first to arrive at the house; and Miss Garth would follow, with a comfortable carriage to take the invalid to the railway.  Every needful arrangement had been made for her; the effort of moving was the one effort she would have to make.