on her in the mean time—who could say whether
she might not, at the eleventh hour, prefer
asserting her large pecuniary interest in her
master, to defending her small pecuniary interest
at her brother's bedside? While that question
remained undecided, the plain necessity of checking
the growth of Noel Vanstone's intimacy
with the family at North Shingles, did not admit
of a doubt; and, of all means of effecting that
object, none could be less open to suspicion than
the temporary removal of the household from
their residence at Aldborough. Thoroughly
satisfied with the soundness of this conclusion,
Captain Wragge made straight for Sea-View
Cottage, to apologise and explain before the
carriage came and the departure took place.

Mr. Noel Vanstone was easily accessible to
visitors: he was walking in the garden before
breakfast. His disappointment and vexation
were freely expressed when he heard the news
which his friend had to communicate. The
captain's fluent tongue, however, soon impressed on
him the necessity of resignation to present
circumstances. The bare hint that the " pious
fraud" might fail after all, if anything happened
in the ten days' interval to enlighten Mrs.
Lecount, had an instant effect in making Mr. Noel
Vanstone as patient and as submissive as could
be wished.

"I won't tell you where we are going, for two
good reasons," said Captain Wragge, when his
preliminary explanations were completed. " In
the first place, I haven't made up my mind yet;
and, in the second place, if you don't know what
our destination is, Mrs. Lecount can't worm it
out of you. I have not the least doubt she is
watching us, at this moment, from behind her
window-curtain. When she asks what I wanted
with you this morning, tell her I came to say
good-by for a few days—finding my niece not so
well again, and wishing to take her on a short
visit to some friends, to try change of air. If
you could produce an impression on Mrs.
Lecount's mind (without overdoing it) that you are
a little disappointed in me, and that you are
rather inclined to doubt my heartiness in
cultivating your acquaintance, you will greatly help
our present object. You may depend on our
return to North Shingles in four or five days at
farthest. If anything strikes me in the mean
while, the post is always at our service, and I
won't fail to write to you."

"Won't Miss Bygrave write to me?" inquired
Mr. Noel Vanstone, piteously. " Did she know
you were coming here? Did she send me no
message?"

"Unpardonable on my part to have forgotten
it!" cried the captain. " She sent you her love."

Mr. Noel Vanstone 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 the 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 towards 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 guesswork. 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 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