Under ordinary circumstances these absurd particulars would not have dwelt on my memory.  But, as matters actually stand, my unfortunate wife’s imbecility may, in her present position, lead to consequences which we none of us foresee.  She is nothing more or less than a grown-up child; and I can plainly detect that Miss Vanstone trusts her, as she would not have trusted a sharper woman, on that very account.  I know children, little and big, rather better than my fair relative does; and I say—­beware of all forms of human innocence, when it happens to be your interest to keep a secret to yourself.

Let me return to business.  Here I am, at two o’clock on a fine summer’s afternoon, left entirely alone, to consider the safest means of approaching Mr. Noel Vanstone on my own account.  My private suspicions of his miserly character produce no discouraging effect on me.  I have extracted cheering pecuniary results in my time from people quite as fond of their money as he can be.  The real difficulty to contend with is the obstacle of Mrs. Lecount.  If I am not mistaken, this lady merits a little serious consideration on my part.  I will close my chronicle for to-day, and give Mrs. Lecount her due.

Three o’clock.—­I open these pages again to record a discovery which has taken me entirely by surprise.

After completing the last entry, a circumstance revived in my memory which I had noticed on escorting the ladies this morning to the railway.  I then remarked that Miss Vanstone had only taken one of her three boxes with her—­and it now occurred to me that a private investigation of the luggage she had left behind might possibly be attended with beneficial results.  Having, at certain periods of my life been in the habit of cultivating friendly terms with strange locks, I found no difficulty in establishing myself on a familiar footing with Miss Vanstone’s boxes.  One of the two presented nothing to interest me.  The other—­devoted to the preservation of the costumes, articles of toilet, and other properties used in the dramatic Entertainment—­proved to be better worth examining:  for it led me straight to the discovery of one of its owner’s secrets.

I found all the dresses in the box complete—­with one remarkable exception.  That exception was the dress of the old north-country lady; the character which I have already mentioned as the best of all my pupil’s disguises, and as modeled in voice and manner on her old governess, Miss Garth.  The wig; the eyebrows; the bonnet and veil; the cloak, padded inside to disfigure her back and shoulders; the paints and cosmetics used to age her face and alter her complexion—­were all gone.  Nothing but the gown remained; a gaudily-flowered silk, useful enough for dramatic purposes, but too extravagant in color and pattern to bear inspection by daylight.  The other parts of the dress are sufficiently quiet to pass muster; the bonnet and veil are only old-fashioned, and the cloak is of a sober gray color.  But one plain inference can be drawn from such a discovery as this.  As certainly as I sit here, she is going to open the campaign against Noel Vanstone and Mrs. Lecount in a character which neither of those two persons can have any possible reason for suspecting at the outset—­the character of Miss Garth.