ion by her desire to assist in
raising him from the miserable state of prostration into which he has
now fallen.

"The money, Mr. Sharpin," she said to me yesterday evening, with tears
in her eyes, "the money may be regained by rigid economy and strict
attention to business. It is my husband's wretched state of mind that
makes me so anxious for the discovery of the thief. I may be wrong,
but I felt hopeful of success as soon as you entered the house; and I
believe that, if the wretch who robbed us is to be found, you are the
man to discover him." I accepted this gratifying compliment in the
spirit in which it was offered, firmly believing that I shall be found,
sooner or later, to have thoroughly deserved it.

Let me now return to business--that is to say, to my peep-hole and my
pipe-hole.

I have enjoyed some hours of calm observation of Mr. Jay. Though rarely
at home, as I understand from Mrs. Yatman, on ordinary occasions, he has
been indoors the whole of this day. That is suspicious, to begin with.
I have to report, further, that he rose at a late hour this morning
(always a bad sign in a young man), and that he lost a great deal
of time, after he was up, in yawning and complaining to himself of
headache. Like other debauched characters, he ate little or nothing for
breakfast. His next proceeding was to smoke a pipe--a dirty clay pipe,
which a gentleman would have been ashamed to put between his lips. When
he had done smoking he took out pen, ink and paper, and sat down to
write with a groan--whether of remorse for having taken the bank-notes,
or of disgust at the task before him, I am unable to say. After writing
a few lines (too far away from my peep-hole to give me a chance of
reading over his shoulder), he leaned back in his chair, and amused
himself by humming the tunes of popular songs. I recognized "My Mary
Anne," "Bobbin' Around," and "Old Dog Tray," among other melodies.
Whether these do or do not represent secret signals by which he
communicates with his accomplices remains to be seen. After he had
amused himself for some time by humming, he got up and began to walk
about the room, occasionally stopping to add a sentence to the paper
on his desk. Before long he went to a locked cupboard and opened it. I
strained my eyes eagerly, in expectation of making a discovery. I saw
him take something carefully out of the cupboard--he turned round--and
it was only a pint bottle of brandy! Having drunk some of the