All the lights were extinguished in Sea-view Cottage,
when he looked that way, except the light in the housekeeper's window.
Captain Wragge shook his head suspiciously. He had gained experience
enough by this time to distrust the wakefulness of Mrs. Lecount.
CHAPTER IX.
IF Captain Wragge could have looked into Mrs. Lecount's room while he
stood on the Parade watching the light in her window, he would have seen
the housekeeper sitting absorbed in meditation over a worthless little
morsel of brown stuff which lay on her toilet-table.
However exasperating to herself the conclusion might be, Mrs. Lecount
could not fail to see that she had been thus far met and baffled
successfully at every point. What was she to do next? If she sent for
Mr. Pendril when he came to Aldborough (with only a few hours spared
from his business at her disposal), what definite course would there be
for him to follow? If she showed Noel Vanstone the original letter from
which her note had been copied, he would apply instantly to the writer
for an explanation: would expose the fabricated story by which Mrs.
Lecount had succeeded in imposing on Miss Garth; and would, in any
event, still declare, on the evidence of his own eyes, that the test
by the marks on the neck had utterly failed.
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