aining the circumstances under
which she had discovered her loss. I suggested that the missing things
should be well searched for first, and then, if nothing came of that,
that I should go for the constable, and place the matter under his
direction.

My mistress agreed to this plan, and the search was undertaken
immediately. It lasted till dinner-time, and led to no results. I then
proposed going for the constable. But my mistress said it was too late
to do anything that day, and told me to wait at table as usual, and to
go on my errand the first thing the next morning. Mr. Meeke was coming
with some new music in the evening, and I suspect she was not willing to
be disturbed at her favorite occupation by the arrival of the constable.

When dinner was over the parson came, and the concert went on as usual
through the evening. At ten o'clock I took up the tray, with the wine,
and soda-water, and biscuits. Just as I was opening one of the bottles
of soda-water, there was a sound of wheels on the drive outside, and a
ring at the bell.

I had unfastened the wires of the cork, and could not put the bottle
down to run at once to the door. One of the female servants answered
it. I heard a sort of half scream--then the sound of a footstep that was
familiar to me.

My mistress turned round from the piano, and looked me hard in the face.

"William," she said, "do you know that step?" Before I could answer the
door was pushed open, and Mr. James Smith walked into the room.

He had his hat on. His long hair flowed down under it over the collar
of his coat; his bright black eyes, after resting an instant on my
mistress, turned to Mr. Meeke. His heavy eyebrows met together, and one
of his hands went up to one of his bushy black whiskers, and pulled at
it angrily.

"You here again!" he said, advancing a few steps toward the little
parson, who sat trembling all over, with his fiddle hugged up in his
arms as if it had been a child.

Seeing her villainous husband advance, my mistress moved, too, so as to
face him. He turned round on her at the first step she took, as quick as
lightning.

"You shameless woman!" he said. "Can you look me in the face in the
presence of that man?" He pointed, as he spoke, to Mr. Meeke.

My mistress never shrank when he turned upon her. Not a sign of fear was
in her face when they confronted each other. Not the faintest flush of
anger came into her cheeks when he spoke. The sense of the insult and