if they were still there. The man told me that they had started by
the earliest diligence. "And," said he, "if you are a friend of
theirs, perhaps you will take charge of these things, which they
have left behind them?" So saying, he pointed to a table at the
back of the hall, on which were lying the black bag, the black
needle-case, the black pin cushion, and the black pen-wiper. There
was also a heap of fragments of cloth which I well knew had been
intended by Miss Grogram for the comfort of her feet and ancles.

I declined the commission, however. "They were no special friends
of mine," I said; and I left all the relics still lying on the
little table in the back hall.

"Upon the whole, I am satisfied!" said the Rev. Augustus Horne, when
I told him the finale of the story.