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Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889

"The New Magdalen"

He turned round. Lady Janet
had followed him.
"Do you wish to speak to me?" he asked.
"I want something of you," Lady Janet answered, "before you go."
"What is it?"
"Your card."
"My card?"
"You have just told me not to be uneasy," said the old lady. "I
_am_ uneasy, for all that. I don't feel as sure as you do that
this woman really is in the grounds. She may be lurking somewhere
in the house, and she may appear when your back in turned.
Remember what you told me."
Julian understood the allusion. He made no reply.
"The people at the police station close by," pursued Lady Janet,
"have instructions to send an experienced man, in plain clothes,
to any address indicated on your card the moment they receive it.
That is what you told me. For Grace's protection, I want your
card before you leave us."
It was impossible for Julian to mention the reasons which now
forbade him to make use of his own precautions--in the very face
of the emergency which they had been especially intended to meet.
How could he declare the true Grace Roseberry to be mad? How
could he give the true Grace Roseberry into custody? On the other
hand, he had personally pledged himself (when the circumstances
appeared to require it) to place the means of legal protection
from insult and annoyance at his aunt's disposal.


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