rise the
next morning, the coast-guardsman going his rounds was surprised to see
a lady who had risen as early as himself engaged over her work at one of
the upper windows of Sea View.

On the fourth morning Noel Vanstone came down to breakfast conscious
of the mistake that he had committed on the previous day. The obvious
course to take, for the purpose of gaining time, was to declare that
his mind was still undecided. He made the assertion boldly when the
housekeeper asked him if he meant to move that day. Again Mrs. Lecount
offered no remark, and again the signs and tokens of incredulity showed
themselves in her face. Vacillation of purpose was not at all unusual in
her experience of her master. But on this occasion she believed that
his caprice of conduct was assumed for the purpose of gaining time to
communicate with North Shingles, and she accordingly set her watch on
him once more with doubled and trebled vigilance.

No letters came that morning. Toward noon the weather changed for the
worse, and all idea of walking out as usual was abandoned. Hour after
hour, while her master sat in one of the parlors, Mrs. Lecount kept
watch in the other, with the door into the passage open, and with a full
view of North Shingles through the convenient side-window at which she
had established herself. Not a sign that was suspicious appeared, not a
sound that was suspicious caught her ear. As the evening closed in, her
master's hesitation came to an end. He was disgusted with the weather;
he hated the place; he foresaw the annoyance of more meetings with Mr.
Bygrave, and he was determined to go to St. Crux the first thing the
next morning. Lecount could stay behind to pack up the curiosities and
settle with the trades-people, and could follow him to the admiral's
on the next day. The housekeeper was a little staggered by the tone
and manner in which he gave these orders. He had, to her own certain
knowledge, effected no communication of any sort with North Shingles,
and yet he seemed determined to leave Aldborough at the earliest
possible opportunity. For the first time she hesitated in her adherence
to her own conclusions. She remembered that her master had complained of
the Bygraves before they returned to Aldborough; and she was conscious
that her own incredulity had once already misled her when the appearance
of the traveling-carriage at the door had proved even Mr. Bygrave
himself to be as good as his word.

Still Mrs. L