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Before he could open his lips, Mrs. Lecount's plump hands descended on his shoulders, put him softly back in his chair, and restored the plate of strawberries to its former position on his lap. "Refresh yourself, Mr. Noel, with a few more strawberries," she said, "and leave Miss Garth to me." She followed Magdalen into the passage, and closed the door of the room after her.
You don't say yes or no on the spot; you take the next day to consider it, and you make up your mind the last thing at night to go to St. Crux the first thing in the morning. Are you in the habit of superintending your own packing up, or do you usually shift all the trouble of it on Mrs. Lecount's shoulders?" "Lecount has all the trouble, of course; Lecount is paid for it!
He picked the last morsel of feather from the quill; and, desperately leaping the pitfall under his feet, advanced to meet Mrs. Lecount's claims on him of his own accord. "I would rather not talk of any will but the will I am making now," he said uneasily. "The first thing, Lecount " He hesitated put the bare end of the quill into his mouth gnawed at it thoughtfully and said no more.
If I stop that communication, I put an obstacle in her way at starting or, as we say at cards, I force her hand. Do you see the point?" Magdalen saw it plainly. The captain went on. "My second reason for shutting you up," he said, "refers entirely to Mrs. Lecount's master. The growth of love, my dear girl, is, in one respect, unlike all other growths it flourishes under adverse circumstances.
How do we know she may not turn back before she gets to Zurich?" That startling consideration terrified Noel Vanstone into instant submission. "What shall I say to the admiral?" he asked, helplessly. "Tell him you are going to be married, to be sure! What does it matter, now Lecount's back is turned?
I must confess I found a few possessing so much more merit than I anticipated that I parted with them reluctantly. Traveled twelve miles, and arrived at Mme. LeCount's. We supped with a tableful of French. Not one of them could speak English.
"Suppose," said the captain, "you were to send a letter addressed to Mrs. Lecount at Aldborough, inclosed in another letter addressed to one of your friends abroad? And suppose you were to instruct that friend to help a harmless practical joke by posting Mrs. Lecount's letter at Zurich? Do you know any one who could be trusted to do that?"
The labeled side of the bottle was full in view; and there, in the plain handwriting of the chemist at Aldborough, was the one startling word confronting them both "Poison." Even Mrs. Lecount's self-possession was shaken by that discovery. She was not prepared to see her own darkest forebodings the unacknowledged offspring of her hatred for Magdalen realized as she saw them realized now.
"Make sure, if you please, whether Mrs. Lecount, the housekeeper, remains or not in Mr. Noel Vanstone's service." Her voice altered a little as she mentioned Mrs. Lecount's name; she is evidently sharp enough to distrust the housekeeper already. "My expenses are to be paid as usual?" I said. "As usual." "When am I expected to leave for Brighton?" "As soon as you can." She rose, and left the room.
Lecount's apparently superfluous hint to him to be liberal in offering money when he knew he had no intention of parting with it, had been founded on an intimate knowledge of his character. He had inherited his father's sordid love of money, without inheriting his father's hard-headed capacity for seeing the uses to which money can be put.
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