There it lay unnoticed, and when he came back, just in time to send off his letters, he fancied, not seeing it, that he had put it into the envelope, which accordingly he closed and sent to the post without it.

But of course Mr.Leigh knew nothing about this.
The second letter was equally without enclosure or message, though from a very different cause.

It was scarcely a dozen lines in length, and only said that Mr.Beresford was dying.

Maurice had just received Mrs.
Costello's farewell note; he was feeling angry and grieved, and could think of no better expedient than to keep silence for the moment, even if he had had time to renew his expostulations.

He had not fully comprehended the secret Mrs.Costello entrusted to him, but in the preoccupations of the moment, he put off all concerns but those of the dying man until he should have more leisure to attend to them.