ching her face;
"she doesn't believe a word of it!"

The next day the meeting occurred on the Parade. Mr. Bygrave took off
his hat, and Noel Vanstone looked the other way. The captain's start of
surprise and scowl of indignation were executed to perfection, but they
plainly failed to impose on Mrs. Lecount. "I am afraid, sir, you have
offended Mr. Bygrave to-day," she ironically remarked. "Happily for
you, he is an excellent Christian! and I venture to predict that he will
forgive you to-morrow."

Noel Vanstone wisely refrained from committing himself to an answer.
Once more he privately applauded his own penetration; once more he
triumphed over his ingenious friend.

Thus far the captain's instructions had been too clear and simple to be
mistaken by any one. But they advanced in complication with the advance
of time, and on the third day Noel Vanstone fell confusedly into the
commission of a slight error. After expressing the necessary weariness
of Aldborough, and the consequent anxiety for change of scene, he
was met (as he had anticipated) by an immediate suggestion from the
housekeeper, recommending a visit to St. Crux. In giving his answer
to the advice thus tendered, he made his first mistake. Instead of
deferring his decision until the next day, he accepted Mrs. Lecount's
suggestion on the day when it was offered to him.

The consequences of this error were of no great importance. The
housekeeper merely set herself to watch her master one day earlier than
had been calculated on--a result which had been already provided for
by the wise precautionary measure of forbidding Noel Vanstone all
communication with North Shingles. Doubting, as Captain Wragge had
foreseen, the sincerity of her master's desire to break off his
connection with the Bygraves by going to St. Crux, Mrs. Lecount tested
the truth or falsehood of the impression produced on her own mind by
vigilantly watching for sign s of secret communication on one side or on
the other. The close attention with which she had hitherto observed the
out-goings and in-comings at North Shingles was now entirely transferred
to her master. For the rest of that third day she never let him out of
her sight; she never allowed any third person who came to the house, on
any pretense whatever, a minute's chance of private communication with
him. At intervals through the night she stole to the door of his room,
to listen and assure herself that he was in bed; and before sun