The housekeeper was a little staggered by the tone
and manner in which he gave these orders. He had, to her own certain
knowledge, effected no communication of any sort with North Shingles,
and yet he seemed determined to leave Aldborough at the earliest
possible opportunity. For the first time she hesitated in her adherence
to her own conclusions. She remembered that her master had complained of
the Bygraves before they returned to Aldborough; and she was conscious
that her own incredulity had once already misled her when the appearance
of the traveling-carriage at the door had proved even Mr. Bygrave
himself to be as good as his word.
Still Mrs. Lecount determined to act with unrelenting caution to the
last. That night, when the doors were closed, she privately removed the
keys from the door in front and the door at the back. She then softly
opened her bedroom window and sat down by it, with her bonnet and cloak
on, to prevent her taking cold. Noel Vanstone's window was on the same
side of the house as her own. If any one came in the dark to speak to
him from the garden beneath, they would speak to his housekeeper as
well. Prepared at all points to intercept every form of clandestine
communication which stratagem could invent, Mrs.
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