with a pinch of snuff; 'but between you
and me--between friends you know, for if Sammy knew it, I should never
hear the last of it--some of the office-money, too, that has been left
about, has gone in the same way. In particular, I have missed three
half-crowns at three different times.'

'You don't mean that?' cried Dick. 'Be careful what you say, old boy,
for this is a serious matter. Are you quite sure? Is there no
mistake?'

'It is so, and there can't be any mistake at all,' rejoined Miss Brass
emphatically.

'Then by Jove,' thought Richard, laying down his pen, 'I am afraid the
Marchioness is done for!'

The more he discussed the subject in his thoughts, the more probable it
appeared to Dick that the miserable little servant was the culprit.
When he considered on what a spare allowance of food she lived, how
neglected and untaught she was, and how her natural cunning had been
sharpened by necessity and privation, he scarcely doubted it. And yet
he pitied her so much, and felt so unwilling to have a matter of such
gravity disturbing the oddity of their acquaintance, that he thought,
and thought truly, that rather than receive fifty pounds down, he would
have the Marchioness proved innocent.

While he was plunged in very profound and serious meditation upon this
theme, Miss Sally sat shaking her head with an air of great mystery and
doubt; when the voice of her brother Sampson, carolling a cheerful
strain, was heard in the passage, and that gentleman himself, beaming
with virtuous smiles, appeared.

'Mr Richard, sir, good morning! Here we are again, sir, entering upon
another day, with our bodies strengthened by slumber and breakfast, and
our spirits fresh and flowing. Here we are, Mr Richard, rising with
the sun to run our little course--our course of duty, sir--and, like
him, to get through our day's work with credit to ourselves and
advantage to our fellow-creatures. A charming reflection sir, very
charming!'

While he addressed his clerk in these words, Mr Brass was, somewhat
ostentatiously, engaged in minutely examining and holding up against
the light a five-pound bank note, which he had brought in, in his hand.

Mr Richard not receiving his remarks with anything like enthusiasm, his
employer turned his eyes to his face, and observed that it wore a
troubled expression.

'You're out of spirits, sir,' said Brass. 'Mr Richard, sir, we should
fall to work cheerfully, and not in a despondent st