human existence inside or out.  The one object which had decided Magdalen on personally venturing herself in Vauxhall Walk—­the object of studying the looks, manners and habits of Mrs. Lecount and her master from a post of observation known only to herself—­was thus far utterly defeated.  After three hours’ watching at the window, she had not even discovered enough to show her that the house was inhabited at all.

Shortly after six o’clock, the landlady disturbed Mrs. Wragge’s studies by spreading the cloth for dinner.  Magdalen placed herself at the table in a position which still enabled her to command the view from the window.  Nothing happened.  The dinner came to an end; Mrs. Wragge (lulled by the narcotic influence of annotating circulars, and eating and drinking with an appetite sharpened by the captain’s absence) withdrew to an arm-chair, and fell asleep in an attitude which would have caused her husband the acutest mental suffering; seven o’clock struck; the shadows of the summer evening lengthened stealthily on the gray pavement and the brown house-walls—­and still the closed door opposite remained shut; still the one window open showed nothing but the black blank of the room inside, lifeless and changeless as if that room had been a tomb.

Mrs. Wragge’s meek snoring deepened in tone; the evening wore on drearily; it was close on eight o’clock—­when an event happened at last.  The street door opposite opened for the first time, and a woman appeared on the threshold.

Was the woman Mrs. Lecount?  No.  As she came nearer, her dress showed her to be a servant.  She had a large door-key in her hand, and was evidently going out to perform an errand.  Roused partly by curiosity, partly by the impulse of the moment, which urged her impetuous nature into action after the passive endurance of many hours past, Magdalen snatched up her bonnet, and determined to follow the servant to her destination, wherever it might be.

The woman led her to the great thoroughfare of shops close at hand, called Lambeth Walk.  After proceeding some little distance, and looking about her with the hesitation of a person not well acquainted with the neighborhood, the servant crossed the road and entered a stationer’s shop.  Magdalen crossed the road after her and followed her in.

The inevitable delay in entering the shop under these circumstances made Magdalen too late to hear what the woman asked for.  The first words spoken, however, by the man behind the counter reached her ears, and informed her that the servant’s object was to buy a railway guide.

“Do you mean a Guide for this month or a Guide for July?” asked the shopman, addressing his customer.

“Master didn’t tell me which,” answered the woman.  “All I know is, he’s going into the country the day after to-morrow.”

“The day after to-morrow is the first of July,” said the shopman.  “The Guide your master wants is the Guide for the new month.  It won’t be published till to-morrow.”