For two days the woman I was watching did not go out. I learnt from the
chambermaid who, like all her class, was amenable to half a sovereign in
her palm, that she was unwell, suffering from a slight cold. Then I
took the servant into my confidence, and told her that I was in the
hotel in order to watch Mrs Slade's movements, giving her to understand
that any assistance she rendered me would be well paid for.
I had an object in view, namely, to enter her room in her absence, and
ascertain the nature of any letters or papers which might be in her
possession. This I managed to effect, with the connivance of the
chambermaid, on the following afternoon. Indeed, the chambermaid
assisted me in my eager search, but beyond a few tradesmen's bills and
one or two unimportant private letters from friends addressed to her at
the _Royal Hotel_ at Ryde, I found nothing. The dispatch-box with the
coronet was locked, and she carried the key upon her bangle. I made
careful search through all her belongings, the chambermaid standing
guard at the door the while, and in the pocket of one of her dresses
hanging in the wardrobe I discovered a crumpled telegram.
I smoothed it out, and saw that it had been dispatched from
Philippopolis, in Bulgaria, about three weeks before, and was addressed
to "Mrs Grainger, _Royal Hotel_, Ryde." Its purport, however, I was
unable to learn, for it was either in cipher, or in the Slav language,
of which I had no knowledge whatever.
Again baffled, I was about to relinquish my search, when, in the pocket
of a long driving-coat of a light drab cloth, I found a letter addressed
to her at Ryde, and evidently forwarded by the hotel-clerk.