ROBERTS: '--a man brushed heavily against me, and then hurried on
in the other direction. I had unbuttoned my coat to look at my
watch under the lamp-post, and after he struck against me I clapped
my hand to my waistcoat, and--phew!--'

MRS. ROBERTS: 'Waistcoat! Yes!'

ROBERTS: '--found my watch gone.'

MRS. ROBERTS: 'What! Your watch? The watch Willis gave you? Made
out of the gold that he mined himself when he first went out to
California? Don't ask me to believe it, Edward! But I'm only too
glad that you escaped with your life. Let them have the watch and
welcome. Oh, nay dear, dear husband!' She approaches him with
extended arms, and then suddenly arrests herself. 'But you've got
it on!'

ROBERTS, with as much returning dignity as can comport with his
dishevelled appearance: 'Yes; I took it from him.' At his wife's
speechless astonishment: 'I went after him and took it from him.'
He sits down, and continues with resolute calm, while his wife
remains standing before him motionless: 'Agnes, I don't know how I
came to do it. I wouldn't have believed I could do it. I've never
thought that I had much courage--physical courage; but when I felt
my watch was gone, a sort of frenzy came over me. I wasn't hurt;
and for the first time in my life I realised what an abominable
outrage theft was. The thought that at six o'clock in the evening,
in the very heart of a great city like Boston, an inoffensive
citizen could be assaulted and robbed, made me furious. I didn't
call out. I simply buttoned my coat tight round me and turned and