Mrs. Wragge was dressed, armed at all points with her collection of
circulars, and eager to be away by ten o'clock. At an earlier hour
Magdalen had provided for her being properly taken care of by the
landlady's eldest daughter--a quiet, well-conducted girl, whose interest
in the shopping expedition was readily secured by a little present of
money for the purchase, on her own account, of a parasol and a muslin
dress. Shortly after ten o'clock Magdalen dismissed Mrs. Wragge and her
attendant in a cab. She then joined the landlady--who was occupied in
setting the rooms in order upstairs--with the object of ascertaining,
by a little well-timed gossip, what the daily habits might be of the
inmates of the house.
She discovered that there were no other lodgers but Mrs. Wragge and
herself. The landlady's husband was away all day, employed at a railway
station. Her second daughter was charged with the care of the kitchen
in the elder sister's absence. The younger children were at school, and
would be back at one o'clock to dinner. The landlady herself "got up
fine linen for ladies," and expected to be occupied over her work all
that morning in a little room built out at the back of the premises.
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