The window of the room on the ground-floor was uncovered and partly
open, but no living creature came near it. Doors opened, and people came
and went, in the houses on either side; children by the dozen poured out
on the pavement to play, and invaded the little strips of garden-ground
to recover lost balls and shuttlecocks; streams of people passed
backward and forward perpetually; heavy wagons piled high with goods
lumbered along the road on their way to, or their way from, the railway
station near; all the daily life of the district stirred with its
ceaseless activity in every direction but one. The hours passed--and
there was the house opposite still shut up, still void of any signs of
human existence inside or out. The one object which had decided Magdalen
on personally venturing herself in Vauxhall Walk--the object of studying
the looks, manners and habits of Mrs. Lecount and her master from a post
of observation known only to herself--was thus far utterly defeated.
After three hours' watching at the window, she had not even discovered
enough to show her that the house was inhabited at all.
Shortly after six o'clock, the landlady disturbed Mrs.
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