Davager had drawn her attention rather too closely to his
ugliness, by offering her testimony of his regard in the shape of a kiss.

I no sooner mentioned him than she flew into a passion; and when I added,
by way of clinching the matter, that I was retained to defend the
interests of a very beautiful and deserving young lady (name not referred
to, of course) against the most cruel underhand treachery on the part of
Mr. Davager, the head chambermaid was ready to go any lengths that she
could safely to serve my cause.

In a few words I discovered that Boots was to call Mr. Davager at eight
the next morning, and was to take his clothes down-stairs to brush as
usual. If Mr. D---- had not emptied his own pockets overnight, we
arranged that Boots was to forget to empty them for him, and was to bring
the clothes down-stairs just as he found them. If Mr. D----'s pockets were
emptied, then of course, it would be necessary to transfer the searching
process to Mr. D----'s room. Under any circumstances, I was certain of the
head chambermaid; and under any circumstances, also, the head chambermaid
was certain of Boots.

I waited till Tom came home, looking very puffy and bilious about the
face; but as to his intellect, if anything, rather sharper than ever. His
report was uncommonly short and pleasant. The inn was shutting up; Mr.
Davager was going to bed in rather a drunken condition; Mr. Davager's
friend had never appeared.

I sent Tom (properly instructed about keeping our man in view all the next
morning) to his shake-down behind the office-desk, where I heard him
hiccoughing half the night, as even the best boys will, when overexcited
and too full of tarts.

At half-past seven next morning I slipped quietly into Boots's pantry.

Down came the clothes. No pockets in trousers. Waistcoat pockets empty.
Coat pockets with something in them. First, handkerchief; secondly, bunch
of keys; thirdly, cigar-case; fourthly, pocketbook. Of course I wasn't
such a fool as to expect to find the letter there, but I opened the
pocketbook with a certain curiosity, notwithstanding.

Nothing in the two pockets of the book but some old advertisements cut out
of newspapers, a lock of hair tied round with a dirty bit of ribbon, a
circular letter about a loan society, and some copies of verses not likely
to suit any company that was not of an extremely free-and-easy
description. On the leaves of the pocketbook, people's addresses scrawled
in pe