ightly trolling from his lips. We
still meet occasionally, and nod if no one is looking.

I am going too fast, however. What I meant to say was that the murder
was premeditated. In the case of a reprehensible murder I know this
would be considered an aggravation of the offence. Of course, it is
an open question whether all the murders are not reprehensible; but
let that pass. To my own mind I should have been indeed deserving of
punishment had I rushed out and slain the waits in a moment of fury. If
one were to give way to his passion every time he is interrupted in his
work or his sleep by bawlers our thoroughfares would soon be choked with
the dead. No one values human life or understands its sacredness more
than I do. I merely say that there may be times when a man, having stood
a great deal and thought it over calmly, is justified in taking the law
into his own hands--always supposing he can do it decently, quietly, and
without scandal. The epidemic of waits broke out early in December, and
every other night or so these torments came in the still hours and burst
into song beneath my windows. They made me nervous. I was more wretched
on the nights they did not come than on the nights they came; for I had
begun to listen for them, and was never sure they had gone into another
locality before four o'clock in the morning. As for their songs, they
were more like music-hall ditties than Christmas carols. So one
morning--it was, I think, the 23d of December--I warned them fairly,
fully, and with particulars, of what would happen if they disturbed me
again. Having given them this warning, can it be said that I was to
blame--at least, to any considerable extent?

Christmas eve had worn into Christmas morning before the waits arrived
on that fateful occasion. I opened the window--if my memory does not
deceive me--at once, and looked down at them. I could not swear to their
being the persons whom I had warned the night before. Perhaps I should
have made sure of this. But in any case these were practised waits.
Their whine rushed in at my open window with a vigor that proved them no
tyros. Besides, the night was a cold one, and I could not linger at an
open casement. I nodded pleasantly to the waits and pointed to my door.
Then I ran downstairs and let them in. They came up to my chambers with
me. As I have said, the lapse of time prevents my remembering how many
of them there were; three, I fancy. At all events, I took them in