in the meantime, emily, left by herself, had her own correspondence to occupy her attention. besides the letter from cecilia (directed to the care of sir jervis redwood), she had received some lines addressed to her by sir jervis himself. the two inclosures had been secured in a sealed envelope, directed to the cottage.

if alban morris had been indeed the person trusted as messenger by sir jervis, the conclusion that followed filled emily with overpowering emotions of curiosity and surprise.

having no longer the motive of serving and protecting her, alban must, nevertheless, have taken the journey to northumberland. he must have gained sir jervis redwood’s favor and confidence—and he might even have been a guest at the baronet’s country seat—when cecilia’s letter arrived. what did it mean?

emily looked back at her experience of her last day at school, and recalled her consultation with alban on the subject of mrs. rook. was he still bent on clearing up his suspicions of sir jervis’s housekeeper? and, with that end in view, had he followed the woman, on her return to her master’s place of abode?

suddenly, almost irritably, emily snatched up sir jervis’s letter. before the doctor had come in, she had glanced at it, and had thrown it aside in her impatience to read what cecilia had written. in her present altered frame of mind, she was inclined to think that sir jervis might be the more interesting correspondent of the two.

on returning to his letter, she was disappointed at the outset.

in the first place, his handwriting was so abominably bad that she was obliged to guess at his meaning. in the second place, he never hinted at the circumstances under which cecilia’s letter had been confided to the gentleman who had left it at her door.

she would once more have treated the baronet’s communication with contempt—but for the discovery that it contained an offer of employment in london, addressed to herself.

sir jervis had necessarily been obliged to engage another secretary in emily’s absence. but he was still in want of a person to serve his literary interests in london. he had reason to believe that discoveries made by modern travelers in central america had been reported from time to time by the english press; and he wished copies to be taken of any notices of this sort which might be found, on referring to the files of newspapers kept in the reading-room of the british museum. if emily considered herself capable of contributing in this way to the completeness of his great work on “the ruined cities,” she had only to apply to his bookseller in london, who would pay her the customary remuneration and give her every assistance of which she might stand in need. the bookseller’s name and address followed (with nothing legible but the two words “bond street”), and there was an end of sir jervis’s proposal.

emily laid it aside, deferring her answer until she had read cecilia’s letter.