In the first case, the lady's object would appear to have been as good
as gained; for the two had certainly asserted themselves to be man and
wife, in his own presence, and in the presence of the landlady. In the
second case, the correspondence so carelessly thrown aside might, for
all a stranger knew to the contrary, prove to be of some importance
in the future. Acting on this latter view, Mr. Bishopriggs--whose past
experience as "a bit clerk body," in Sir Patrick's chambers, had made
a man of business of him--produced his pen and ink, and indorsed the
letter with a brief dated statement of the circumstances under which
he had found it. "I'll do weel to keep the Doecument," he thought to
himself. "Wha knows but there'll be a reward offered for it ane o' these
days? Eh! eh! there may be the warth o' a fi' pun' note in this, to a
puir lad like me!"

With that comforting reflection, he drew out a battered tin cash-box
from the inner recesses of the drawer, and locked up the stolen
correspondence to bide its time.



The storm rose higher and higher as the evening advanced.

In the sitting-room, the state of affairs, perpetually changing, now
presented itself under another new aspect.

Arnold had finished his dinner, and had sent it away. He had next drawn
a side-table up to the sofa on which Anne lay--had shuffled the pack of
cards--and was now using all his powers of persuasion to induce her
to try one game at _Ecarte_ with him, by way of diverting her