"What have you had taken?" asked I.

"Oh! I have"----then she paused, as if studying what to say. In the mean
time, the landlady had heard her say she had been robbed, and hastened
to the place where we were standing, but being unobserved from the
excitement, was occupying a position at Mrs. B.'s back.

"Oh! I have lost a package of letters, of no value to any person but
myself. They are family relics, but I will have them at the peril of my
life. I will swear that I have lost other things besides the papers, and
will get them back, or make this house pay well for harbouring thieves.
Mind, Green, what I have said. Keep mum, and I will have them back at
the risk of----"

She was interrupted by the landlady, who very kindly assisted her in
finishing her sentence by adding--"at the risk of perjuring yourself!"

Mrs. B. being startled, exclaimed, "Oh! no, madam, don't mistake me. I
only meant I would make a great stir about them--that I would offer a
reward to the servants, and at the same time let on as if something very
valuable was missing."

"Of course I would not intimate, and do not, I pray you, understand me
as thinking that any person has taken them with the design of retaining
them. I have no idea that the individual having them, whoever he may be,
will be base enough to keep them from me. Some of them are very ancient,
and among the number are several sheets of blank parchment, which
belonged to my grandfather. I have preserved them as a memento. Their
loss would be a source of great grief."