…I knew full well I couldn’t afford to keep more. Of course it was wrong of me to think of taking a tip for merely having done my duty, and it was wrong of me also to leave my beat, even for a moment; but then we are all prone to weakness at times, sir, — even Prime Ministers and Home Secretaries. Moreover, I must admit that, apart from the thought of a possible sovereign, I was curious to see inside a so strangely ordered house- hold, and the smell of the dinner to a half-empty stomach was very tantalising — prime roast mutton, onion sauce, pheasant, fish and tripe — an odd assortment, sir, but only in keeping with the arrangement of the cloth. The gentleman met me at the door, and insisted on my stepping inside.’ You can scent the good things, can’t you, Bobby? ‘ He laughed,…

…Pausing for a moment to see that everyone was perfectly still, he laid his hand very slowly on the handle of the door, and, amidst the most profound silence, flung it open. Instantly there jumped out on me the most dreadful of creatures, a ghastly caricature of humanity with livid red eyes, and brown face and body, and, as I fled in terror, the houses, walls and people shrieked with laughter. On and on I tore, the sounds of devilish merriment still ringing in my ears, and the ghoulish horror still in hot pursuit. At last, finding that I could hold out no longer, I was about to resign myself to its clutches, when I awoke. Now, although this dream was decidedly unpleasant, it was the precursor of good fortune. And this I think may be accounted for by the predominance in my dream of brown and gold — the…

…youth was then closely watched, and on being observed to come up, about noon one day, to the door of his mistress’s apartment with a case-knife in his hand, he was stopped, and an explanation of his conduct was demanded. In reply, he said he intended going into the adjoining room — i.e. the room leading out of his mistress’s — to scrape the dirt off his master’s embroidered shirt.”The answer not being deemed at all satisfactory, he was taken aside and put to a searching examination, when he ended by confessing that he had” always remembered with indignation his master’s severity to him, and had fully resolved on revenge,” but in what manner he would not say. He was, of course, instantly discharged; and the lady and her husband congratulated themselves on their esc. From a horrible death — an escape which they confessed was entirely owing to the…