ned; no carriage made its appearance;
no pursuit of Noel Vanstone was now within the range of human
possibility. The long strain on Mrs. Lecount's mind relaxed at last. She
left her seat on the Parade, and returned in higher spirits than usual,
to perform the closing household ceremonies at Sea View.

She sat down alone in the parlor and drew a long breath of relief.
Captain Wragge's calculations had not deceived him. The evidence of her
own senses had at last conquered the housekeeper's incredulity, and had
literally forced her into the opposite extreme of belief.

Estimating the events of the last three days from her own experience of
them; knowing (as she certainly knew) that the first idea of going to
St. Crux had been started by herself, and that her master had found
no opportunity and shown no inclination to inform the family at North
Shingles that he had accepted her proposal, Mrs. Lecount was fairly
compelled to acknowledge that not a fragment of foundation remained to
justify the continued suspicion of treachery in her own mind. Looking
at the succession of circumstances under the new light thrown on them
by results, she could see nothing unaccountable, nothing contradictory
anywhere. The attempt to pass off the forged pictures as originals was
in perfect harmony with the character of such a man as Mr. Bygrave.
Her master's indignation at the attempt to impose on him; his
plainly-expressed suspicion that Miss Bygrave was privy to it; his
disappointment in the niece; his contemptuous treatment of the uncle on
the Parade; his weariness of the place which had been the scene of his
rash intimacy with strangers, and his readiness to quit it that morning,
all commended themselves as genuine realities to the housekeeper's mind,
for one sufficient reason. Her own eyes had seen Noel Vanstone take his
departure from Aldborough without leaving, or attempting to leave, a
single trace behind him for the Bygraves to follow.

Thus far the housekeeper's conclusions led her, but no further. She
was too shrewd a woman to trust the future to chance and fortune. Her
master's variable temper might relent. Accident might at any time give
Mr. Bygrave an opportunity of repairing the error that he had committed,
and of artfully regaining his lost place in Noel Vanstone's estimation.
Admitting that circumstances had at last declared themselves
unmistakably in her favor, Mrs. Lecount was not the less convinced that
nothing would perman