the spot to
make the servant's acquaintance.

She went first to the cottage at which Mr. Bygrave had left the key
of North Shingles, to discover the servant's present address from
the landlord. So far as this object was concerned, her errand proved
successful. The landlord knew that the girl had been allowed to go home
for a few days to her friends, and knew in what part of Aldborough her
friends lived. But here his sources of information suddenly dried up. He
knew nothing of the destination to which Mr. Bygrave and his family had
betaken themselves, and he was perfectly ignorant of the number of days
over which their absence might be expected to extend. All he could say
was, that he had not received a notice to quit from his tenant, and that
he had been requested to keep the key of the house in his possession
until Mr. Bygrave returned to claim it in his own person.

Baffled, but not discouraged, Mrs. Lecount turned her steps next toward
the back street of Aldborough, and astonished the servant's relatives by
conferring on them the honor of a morning call.

Easily imposed on at starting by Mrs. Lecount's pretense of calling
to engage her, under the impression that she had left Mr. Bygrave's
service, the servant did her best to answer the questions put to her.
But she knew as little as the landlord of her master's plans. All she
could say about them was, that she had not been dismissed, and that she
was to await the receipt of a note recalling her when necessary to her
situation at North Shingles. Not having expected to find her better
informed on this part of the subject, Mrs. Lecount smoothly shifted her
ground, and led the woman into talking generally of the advantages and
defects of her situation in Mr. Bygrave's family.

Profiting by the knowledge gained, in this indirect manner, of the
little secrets of the household, Mrs. Lecount made two discoveries. She
found out, in the first place, that the servant (having enough to do in
attending to the coarser part of the domestic work) was in no position
to disclose the secrets of Miss Bygrave's wardrobe, which were known
only to the young lady herself and to her aunt. In the second place,
the housekeeper ascertained that the true reason of Mrs. Bygrave's rigid
seclusion was to be found in the simple fact that she was little better
than an idiot, and that her husband was probably ashamed of allowing her
to be seen in public. These apparently trivial discoveries enligh