, when I suddenly
remembered that I had forgotten to buy myself any candles the evening
before, and that I should be left in the dark if I did not manage to
rectify this mistake in some way. The shop close to me, at which I
usually deal, would be shut up, I knew, before I could get to it; so I
determined to go into the first place I passed where candles were sold.
This turned out to be a small shop with two counters, which did business
on one side in the general grocery way, and on the other in the rag and
bottle and old iron line.

There were several customers on the grocery side when I went in, so I
waited on the empty rag side till I could be served. Glancing about me
here at the worthless-looking things by which I was surrounded, my eye
was caught by a bundle of rags lying on the counter, as if they had just
been brought in and left there. From mere idle curiosity, I looked close
at the rags, and saw among them something like an old cravat. I took it
up directly and held it under a gaslight. The pattern was blurred lilac
lines running across and across the dingy black ground in a trellis-work
form. I looked at the ends: one of them was torn off.

How I managed to hide the breathless surprise into which this discovery
threw me I cannot say, but I certainly contrived to steady my voice
somehow, and to ask for my candles calmly when the man and woman serving
in the shop, having disposed of their other customers, inquired of me
what I wanted.

As the man took down the candles, my brain was all in a whirl with
trying to think how I could get possession of the old cravat without
exciting any suspicion. Chance, and a little quickness on my part in
taking advantage of it, put the object within my reach in a moment. The
man, having counted out the candles, asked the woman for some paper to
wrap them in. She produced a piece much too small and flimsy for the
purpose, and declared, when he called for something better, that the
day's supply of stout paper was all exhausted. He flew into a rage
with her for managing so badly. Just as they were beginning to quarrel
violently, I stepped back to the rag-counter, took the old cravat
carelessly out of the bundle, and said, in as light a tone as I could
possibly assume:

"Come, come, don't let my candles be the cause of hard words between
you. Tie this ragged old thing round them with a bit of string, and I
shall carry them home quite comfortably."

The man seemed disposed to in