She went first to the cottage at which Mr. Bygrave had left the key of North Shingles, to discover the servant’s present address from the landlord.  So far as this object was concerned, her errand proved successful.  The landlord knew that the girl had been allowed to go home for a few days to her friends, and knew in what part of Aldborough her friends lived.  But here his sources of information suddenly dried up.  He knew nothing of the destination to which Mr. Bygrave and his family had betaken themselves, and he was perfectly ignorant of the number of days over which their absence might be expected to extend.  All he could say was, that he had not received a notice to quit from his tenant, and that he had been requested to keep the key of the house in his possession until Mr. Bygrave returned to claim it in his own person.

Baffled, but not discouraged, Mrs. Lecount turned her steps next toward the back street of Aldborough, and astonished the servant’s relatives by conferring on them the honor of a morning call.

Easily imposed on at starting by Mrs. Lecount’s pretense of calling to engage her, under the impression that she had left Mr. Bygrave’s service, the servant did her best to answer the questions put to her.  But she knew as little as the landlord of her master’s plans.  All she could say about them was, that she had not been dismissed, and that she was to await the receipt of a note recalling her when necessary to her situation at North Shingles.  Not having expected to find her better informed on this part of the subject, Mrs. Lecount smoothly shifted her ground, and led the woman into talking generally of the advantages and defects of her situation in Mr. Bygrave’s family.

Profiting by the knowledge gained, in this indirect manner, of the little secrets of the household, Mrs. Lecount made two discoveries.  She found out, in the first place, that the servant (having enough to do in attending to the coarser part of the domestic work) was in no position to disclose the secrets of Miss Bygrave’s wardrobe, which were known only to the young lady herself and to her aunt.  In the second place, the housekeeper ascertained that the true reason of Mrs. Bygrave’s rigid seclusion was to be found in the simple fact that she was little better than an idiot, and that her husband was probably ashamed of allowing her to be seen in public.  These apparently trivial discoveries enlightened Mrs. Lecount on a very important point which had been previously involved in doubt.  She was now satisfied that the likeliest way to obtaining a private investigation of Magdalen’s wardrobe lay through deluding the imbecile lady, and not through bribing the ignorant servant.

Having reached that conclusion—­pregnant with coming assaults on the weakly-fortified discretion of poor Mrs. Wragge—­the housekeeper cautiously abstained from exhibiting herself any longer under an inquisitive aspect.  She changed the conversation to local topics, waited until she was sure of leaving an excellent impression behind her, and then took her leave.