drew Vanstone's sister, and therefore the cousin of Noel Vanstone.
Having this information, Magdalen calmly informed Wragge that their
alliance, for the moment, was at an end, and taking Mrs. Wragge with
her, journeyed to London. There she obtained rooms directly opposite the
house occupied by Noel Vanstone. Disguising herself as Miss Garth and
assuming her old governess's voice and manner, she boldly visited the
house. She found Noel Vanstone a weak, avaricious coward, who was
already terrified by the letters she had written him demanding the
restitution of her fortune. He was completely at the mercy of Mrs.
Lecount.

Something about the supposed Miss Garth excited the suspicion of Mrs.
Lecount, and she deliberately set about to try and make her visitor
betray what she was convinced she was concealing.

"I would suggest," said Mrs. Lecount, "that you give a hundred pounds to
each of these unfortunate sisters."

"He will repent the insult to the last hour of his life," said Magdalen.

The instant that answer passed her lips, she would have given worlds to
recall it. Her passionate words had been uttered in her own voice. Mrs.
Lecount detected the change, and, with a view to establishing some proof
of the identity of her visitor, she secured, by a subterfuge, a thin
strip of the old-fashioned skirt which Magdalen was wearing in the
character of Miss Garth.

Foiled in her appeal to Noel Vanstone, Magdalen determined to put in
train the plot she had long proposed to herself. She set out
deliberately to win the property of which she and her sister had been
despoiled, by winning the hand of Noel Vanstone. A letter from Frank
Clare had released her from her engagement, and with a bitter heart she
went down to Aldborough, in Suffolk, whither Noel Vanstone had removed
for his health.

In the character of the niece of Mr. Bygrave, which role Captain Wragge
adopted, she laid siege to the selfish affections of Noel Vanstone. Her
task proved ridiculously easy. Noel fell hopelessly in love with her,
and before many days were out proposed marriage. So far, everything had
worked smoothly, but at this point Mrs. Lecount's fears were aroused.
She determined to prevent the marriage at all costs, and used every
possible means to dissuade her master from having anything more to do
with the Bygraves, and the whole plot must have fallen to the ground had
it not been for the persistence and skilful diplomacy displayed by
Captain Wragge