will reach Zurich, and discover the trick we have played her; in
twenty days from to-morrow Mrs. Lecount will be back at Aldborough,
and will find her master's wedding-cards on the table, and her master
himself away on his honey-moon trip. I put it arithmetically, for the
sake of putting it plain. God bless you. Good-morning!"

"I suppose I may have the happiness of seeing Miss Bygrave to-morrow?"
said Noel Vanstone, turning round at the door.

"We must be careful," replied Captain Wragge. "I don't forbid to-morrow,
but I make no promise beyond that. Permit me to remind you that we have
got Mrs. Lecount to manage for the next ten days."

"I wish Lecount was at the bottom of the German Ocean!" exclaimed Noel
Vanstone, fervently. "It's all very well for you to manage her--you
don't live in the house. What am I to do?"

"I'll tell you to-morrow," said the captain. "Go out for your walk
alone, and drop in here, as you dropped in to-day, at two o'clock. In
the meantime, don't forget those things I want you to send me. Seal
them up together in a large envelope. When you have done that, ask Mrs.
Lecount to walk out with you as usual; and while she is upstairs
putting her bonnet on, send the servant across to me. You understand?
Good-morning."

An hour afterward, the sealed envelope, with its inclosures, reached
Captain Wragge in perfect safety. The double task of exactly imitating a
strange handwriting, and accurately copying words written in a language
with which he was but slightly acquainted, presented more difficulties
to be overcome than the captain had anticipated. It was eleven
o'clock before the employment which he had undertaken was successfully
completed, and the letter to Zurich ready for the post.

Before going to bed, he walked out on the deserted Parade to breathe the
cool night air. All the lights were extinguished in Sea-view Cottage,
when he looked that way, except the light in the housekeeper's window.
Captain Wragge shook his head suspiciously. He had gained experience
enough by this time to distrust the wakefulness of Mrs. Lecount.

CHAPTER IX.

IF Captain Wragge could have looked into Mrs. Lecount's room while he
stood on the Parade watching the light in her window, he would have seen
the housekeeper sitting absorbed in meditation over a worthless little
morsel of brown stuff which lay on her toilet-table.

However exasperating to herself the conclusion might be, Mrs. Lecount
could not fail t