"Now," said the newcomer, in a deep but feminine voice, "now the false
Miss Du Plessis will go on with her nursing, while the real one takes
Mr. Wilkinson's arm and keeps her appointment at the Squire's."
Miss Du Plessis clapped her hands together and laughed heartily.
Wilkinson, thinking, all the time, what a pretty, musical laugh it was,
could not help joining in the amusement, for Nash was complete from his
wig down to his boots. The colonel's niece threw a light, woolly shawl
over the detective's shoulders, and accompanied the pair to the gate,
where, before dismissing them, she warned her double not to compromise
her to Mr. Rawdon.
"I hope soon to have the pleasure of meeting you, Mr. Wilkinson, under
more favourable circumstances," she called after that gentleman, as they
moved off, and then ran into the house to hide her laughter.
The dominie felt his face getting red, with a pretty young lady hoping
to meet him again, on the one hand, and a not by any means ill-looking
personation of one hanging on to his arm, on the other. After a minute,
the detective withdrew his hand from his companion's arm, but continued
to practise his assumed voice upon him, in every imaginable enquiry as
to what he knew of Miss Du Plessis, of her friend Miss Carmichael, and
of the working geologist's intentions.
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