onceived ideas! That notion had to go to the wall. However, that has
nothing to do here.

Whether Chang-how had been "takin' notes" was a debatable point, but
that somebody was taking everything takable on the premises soon became
a self-evident proposition; and this was uncomfortable for more reasons
than one. Mr. Smith and I almost quarrelled about it. He would not
believe it to be Chang-how, and I was determined it should not be
Anarky. Said he, "Anarky is taking advantage of the popular idea that
the Chinese are invariably dis--"

"Now, who ever heard anything like that?" I interrupted. "What does
Anarky know about the popular idea concerning the Chinese? About as much
as I should know if you were to talk to me about the Teutonic idiom for
mezzo-tinted phonetics."

"You have convinced me, my dear, that Chang-how is the guilty party; but
the idea I meant to convey before you knocked me down with those big
words was this--that Anarky, knowing what people think of the Chinese,
indulges her dishonest yearnings, believing we shall suppose the thief
to be Chang-how."

"But I know it _isn't_ Anarky, because Anarky always had a blundering,
awkward, above-board way of stealing that made it only _taking_ things,
and she was always getting caught; and Chang-how always manages not to
be found out. And I know it is Chang-how; I know it by that. It shows he
is used to it."

Mr. Smith laughed.

"It does! and I know it _is_ Chang-how and it _isn't_ Anarky."

Then Mr. Smith laughed again, and said women were born to be lawyers.

Chang-how would come to me (he was dining-room servant, you remember):
"Evly one spoonee no come homee."

"How you mean, Chang-how? Where spoonee go?"

"All no light: all longee. Spoonee go 'way: I no find him."

"Oh, but you must find them, Chang-how. How many go?"

"Four spoonee."

"But they are solid silver! You really must find them."

"You tell where lookee, I go lookee."

"I am sure I don't know were you are to look. And two forks were missing
last week!"

I stared reflectively at a June-bug on the window-sill. Chang-how stood
with folded hands and drooping shoulders, a seraphic calm upon his
features, as of one who had stood upon the burning deck when all but he
had fled. Evidently he had done his duty. I was so impressed with this
fact, and that the responsibility, if not the guilt, was now mine, that
I simply said, "Go set the table then, Chang-how. Mr. Smith will have
to tell u