tone closed his eyes in silent ecstasy.

When he opened them again Captain Wragge had passed through the garden
gate and was on his way back to North Shingles. As soon as his own door
had closed on him, Mrs. Lecount descended from the post of observation
which the captain had rightly suspected her of occupying, and addressed
the inquiry to her master which the captain had rightly foreseen would
follow his departure. The reply she received produced but one impression
on her mind. She at once set it down as a falsehood, and returned to her
own window to keep watch over North Shingles more vigilantly than ever.

To her utter astonishment, after a lapse of less than half an hour she
saw an empty carriage draw up at Mr. Bygrave's door. Luggage was brought
out and packed on the vehicle. Miss Bygrave appeared, and took her seat
in it. She was followed into the carriage by a lady of great size
and stature, whom the housekeeper conjectured to be Mrs. Bygrave. The
servant came next, and stood waiting on the path. The last person to
appear was Mr. Bygrave. He locked the house door, and took the key
away with him to a cottage near at hand, which was the residence of the
landlord of North Shingles. On his return, he nodded to the servant, who
walked away by herself toward the humbler quarter of the little town,
and joined the ladies in the carriage. The coachman mounted the box, and
the vehicle disappeared.

Mrs. Lecount laid down the opera-glass, through which she had been
closely investigating these proceedings, with a feeling of helpless
perplexity which she was almost ashamed to acknowledge to herself.
The secret of Mr. Bygrave's object in suddenly emptying his house at
Aldborough of every living creature in it was an impenetrable mystery to
her.

Submitting herself to circumstances with a ready resignation which
Captain Wragge had not shown, on his side, in a similar situation, Mrs.
Lecount wasted neither time nor temper in unprofitable guess-work. She
left the mystery to thicken or to clear, as the future might decide,
and looked exclusively at the uses to which she might put the morning's
event in her own interests. Whatever might have become of the family at
North Shingles, the servant was left behind, and the servant was exactly
the person whose assistance might now be of vital importance to the
housekeeper's projects. Mrs. Lecount put on her bonnet, inspected the
collection of loose silver in her purse, and set forth on