Not resting satisfied with the endeavours he had made to recover his
lost charge, Mr Meagles addressed a letter of remonstrance, breathing
nothing but goodwill, not only to her, but to Miss Wade too.
No answer coming to these epistles, or to another written to the stubborn girl
by the hand of her late young mistress, which might have melted her
if anything could (all three letters were returned weeks afterwards as
having been refused at the house-door), he deputed Mrs Meagles to make
the experiment of a personal interview.
That worthy lady being unable to obtain one, and being
steadfastly denied admission, Mr Meagles besought
Arthur to essay once more what he could do.
All that came of his compliance was, his discovery
that the empty house was left in charge
of the old woman, that Miss Wade was gone, that the waifs and strays of
furniture were gone, and that the old woman would accept any number of
half-crowns and thank the donor kindly, but had no information whatever
to exchange for those coins, beyond constantly offering for perusal a
memorandum relative to fixtures, which the house-agent's young man had
left in the hall.
Unwilling, even under this discomfiture, to resign the ingrate and leave
her hopeless, in case of her better dispositions obtaining the mastery
over the darker side of her character, Mr Meagles, for six successive
days, published a discreetly covert advertisement in the morning papers,
to the effect that if a certain young person who had lately left
home without reflection, would at any time apply to his address at
Twickenham, everything would be as it had been before, and no reproaches
need be apprehended.