Swimming was one among the many personal accomplishments of
which the captain was master. He was rowed out to sea every morning,
and took his bath luxuriously in the deep blue water. Mrs. Lecount had
already computed the time consumed in this recreation by her watch, and
had discovered that a full hour usually elapsed from the moment when he
embarked on the beach to the moment when he returned.
During that period she had never seen any other inhabitant of North
Shingles leave the house. The servant was no doubt at her work in the
kitchen; Mrs. Bygrave was probably still in her bed; and Miss Bygrave
(if she was up at that early hour) had perhaps received directions not
to venture out in her uncle's absence. The difficulty of meeting the
obstacle of Magdalen's presence in the house had been, for some days
past, the one difficulty which all Mrs. Lecount's ingenuity had thus far
proved unable to overcome.
She sat at the window for a quarter of an hour after the captain's
boat had left the beach with her mind hard at work, and her eyes fixed
mechanically on North Shingles--she sat considering what written excuse
she could send to her master for delaying her departure from Aldborough
for some days to come--when the door of the house she was watching
suddenly opened, and Magdalen herself appeared in the garden.
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