The means of effecting this new object were, to all appearance, far less
easy of attainment than the means of effecting the object which Mrs.
Lecount had just resigned. Here no help was to be expected from others,
no ostensibly benevolent motives could be put forward as a blind--no
appeal could be made to Mr. Pendril or to Miss Garth. Here the
housekeeper's only chance of success depended, in the first place, on
her being able to effect a stolen entrance into Mr. Bygrave's house,
and, in the second place, on her ability to discover whether that
memorable alpaca dress from which she had secretly cut the fragment of
stuff happened to form part of Miss Bygrave's wardrobe.
Taking the difficulties now before her in their order as they occurred,
Mrs. Lecount first resolved to devote the next few days to watching the
habits of the inmates of North Shingles, from early in the morning to
late at night, and to testing the capacity of the one servant in the
house to resist the temptation of a bribe. Assuming that results proved
successful, and that, either by money or by stratagem, she gained
admission to North Shingles (without the knowledge of Mr. Bygrave or
his niece), she turned next to the second difficulty of the two--the
difficulty of obtaining access to Miss Bygrave's wardrobe.
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