‘I have brought you the memorandum, Miss Heathcote, and you are free to make what use of it you may think best.’
‘I hope to make good use of it,’ was her answer as she received a long blue envelope which was carefully sealed.
‘Of course you understand that you are at liberty to open this yourself, or in the presence of others whom you think the contents may affect.’
‘I shall first find one or two of the other letters,’ said Madge, after a moment’s reflection, ‘and then I shall place them with this packet, sealed as it is, in the hands of the gentleman it most concerns.’
‘I am satisfied. What I am most anxious about is that you yourself should be convinced. Do not forget that.’
‘I am already convinced.’ No one could doubt it who saw the bright confidence in her eyes.
‘That is all I desire; but of course it will be a pleasure to me if you succeed in convincing others. I have told them to have the carriage ready, as I thought you might be in a hurry to get home.’
‘Indeed I am; and thank you.’
Amazement as much as courtesy kept Miss Hadleigh mute until the leave-taking compelled her to utter the usual formalities. Mr Hadleigh saw Madge to the carriage, and there was a note of tenderness in his ‘Good-bye’—as if he were a father seeing his daughter start on a long journey from which she might never return.
What was the mysterious influence the girl exercised over this man? Under it he had been always different from what he appeared to be at other times; and under it he had consented to do that to which no one else, except Philip, had ever dreamt he could be persuaded.