his bearing in every way
suggestive of plethoric pockets. Paper and pencil in hand, he is
nervously figuring. He makes no secret of his figures because of his
absorption, and a glance shows that he is correcting the numbers of bonds
and making sure of the amounts they represent.

"It is plain that this last is a victim of a sneak robbery, and, the
unerring scent of the chief selecting him as the most profitable customer
of the morning, he is the first visitor called to an audience. Large
affairs are quickly despatched, and it is soon arranged how a part of the
property can be recovered and justice cheated of its due. Very soon a
handbill will be publicly distributed, offering a reward for the return
of the bonds, and it will be signed by the Agency. The thief will know
exactly what that means, and the affair being closed to mutual
satisfaction, the thief will be at liberty to repeat the operation, which
resulted in reasonable profit and was attended with no risk.

"There is also in the room a sallow, vinegary woman of uncertain years,
and it seems so natural that a man should run away from her, we are not
surprised that, being voluble in her grief, she declares her business to
be the discovery of an absconding husband. But near her is another and
truer type of outraged womanhood, a wasted young wife, beautiful as ruins
are beautiful, whom a rascal spendthrift has made a martyr to his
selfishness until, patience and hope being exhausted, she is driven to
the last extremity, and seeks by a means at which her nature revolts for
a proof of but one of those numerous violations of the marriage vow which
she feels certain he has committed. It is a cruel resort, but the law
which permits a man to outrage a woman in almost every other way frowns
upon that one, and she is driven to it as the sole method of release from
an intolerable and degrading bondage. In such cases as this might
perhaps be found some justification for the existence of private
detectives; but they themselves do not appear to know that they stand in
need of extenuation, and so neglect the opportunity thus presented to
vindicate their necessity by conducting this class of their business
with, even for them, remarkable lack of conscience. Anxious always to
furnish exactly what is desired, their reports are often lies,
manufactured to suit the occasion, and once furnished they are stoutly
adhered to, even to the last extremity. Frequently the same Agenc