The kitchen appeared to be wrapped in perfect silence.

Satisfying himself as to this, he next took off his heavy shoes, stole past the back door, and so round the clerk's house to the front.

Very softly indeed went he, creeping by the wall, and emerging at last round the angle, by the window of the best parlour.

Here, most excessively to Mr.Pike's consternation, he came upon a lady doing exactly what he had come to do--namely, stealthily listening at the window to anything there might be to hear inside.
The shrill scream she gave when she found her face in contact with the wild intruder, might have been heard over at Dr.Ashton's.

Clerk Gum, who had been quietly writing in his office, came out in haste, and recognized Mrs.Jones, the wife of the surly porter at the station, and step-mother to the troublesome young servant, Rebecca.