ance; and I saw at once,
through a hole in the curtains, that he was the lawful occupier and
possessor of the apartment.

Here was a predicament indeed! If the emergency had not been so
desperate, I must have fainted. "Good gracious," I thought, "if he
should lock the door!" Frank, however, seemed to have no such
intention; I believe this is a precaution gentlemen seldom adopt. On
the contrary, he proceeded to make himself thoroughly at home.
Lighting his candle, he leisurely divested himself of his coat,
waistcoat, and neckcloth, enfolded his person in a large loose
dressing-gown, leaned his head on both hands, and gave a deep sigh.
Apparently much relieved by this process, he took up his hair-brushes,
and after a good refreshing turn at his locks and whiskers, and a
muttered compliment to his own reflection in the glass, that sounded
very like "You fool!" he unlocked a small writing-case, and producing
from it a little bundle of letters, tied up with pink ribbon, selected
them one by one, and read them over from beginning to end, kissing
each with devout fervour as he replaced it carefully in its envelope.
I would have given a great deal to know who they were from; their
perusal seemed to afford him mingled satisfaction and annoyance; but
he sighed heavily again, and I saw he had a long lock of hair in his
fingers, which he gazed at till the tears stood in his eyes. He kissed
it, the traitor! and fondled it, and spoke to it, and clasped it to
his heart (men are just as great fools as we are). Whose could it be?
Not mine, certainly, for I never gave him such a thing; Miss
Molasses'? No; hers was black, and rather coarse; this was a silky
chestnut. Could it have belonged to Mrs. Lumley? Hers was very much
the colour, and I often thought Frank rather _epris_ with her.
Nonsense! that lively lady had not an atom of sentiment in her
composition; she would just as soon have thought of working him a
counterpane!

I was so interested in my discoveries that I forgot altogether my own
critical position, the impracticability of escape till Frank had gone
to sleep, the chance of arousing him as I went out, or, more alarming
still, the awful possibility of his lying awake all night. When
morning dawned, concealment could no longer be preserved, and what to
do then? I meditated a bold stroke. To rush from my hiding-place, blow
out both the candles before my host had recovered his surprise, and
then run for it. Thrice was I on the