The
mother hung down her head; and little Jeannie leered significantly,
while she took the strings of her bonnet, tied them, undid them again,
and flung away the ends till they went round her neck; nay, the playful
minx was utterly dead to the condition of her brother who stood there,
ashamed to look any one in the face, if he was not rather like an
exhumed corpse; and we would not be far out if we said that she even
laughed as she saw the curmudgeon staring like an angry mastiff at the
brother she loved so well. But then, was she not an eccentric thing,
driven hither and thither by vagrant impulses, and with thoughts in her
head which nobody could understand?

"Was this the man who robbed you, Mr. Henderson?"

"Yes, the very man; now when I recollect. Stay, was there any
handkerchief found on him?"

"Yes; that," said an officer, producing a red silk handkerchief.

"Why, I gave him that," said Mr. Henderson. "It cost me 4s. 6d.; and it
was that he had over his face when he robbed me of my hard-earned
money!"

"It is true," said Charles; "and sorry am I for the frolic, which my
companions forced me into."

"A frolic with five pounds at its credit," said Mr. Henderson. "Where is
the money, sir?"

"Ah! I know, dear uncle," cried the watchful Jeannie, in a piercing
treble of the clearest silver.

All eyes were turned on Jeannie.

"Then where is it, girl?"

"I saw him put it in his snuff-mull last night when he was at mother's."

"Examine your box, Mr. Henderson."

The man growled, took out the box, and there was the five pounds. He
looked at Jeannie as if he would have devoured her with his nose at a
single pinch.

"Was Mr. Henderson sober, Miss S----th?"

"No."

"Was he drunk?"

"No. Only he couldn't stand scarcely, though he could walk; and he
called mother Jeannie, and me Peggy, and he said 'twas a shame in us to
burn two candles at his expense, when one was enough."

"_Saved by a pinch_," cried Captain Stewart.

"Mr. Henderson," said the fiscal, "the case is done, and would never
have come here if your nose had happened last night to be as itchy as
your hand. The prisoner is discharged."

And no sooner had the words been uttered than Jeannie flew to her
brother, hung round his neck, kissed him, blubbered and played such
antics that the fiscal could not refrain searching for his handkerchief.
He found it too; but just as if this article were no part of his
official property, he returned it to