the way with such
alacrity, that Mr Blurt felt it necessary to think exclusively of his
wrongs lest his indignation should cool too soon. Having shown him into
a comfortable waiting-room, the official went off with his card. In a
few minutes a gentleman entered, accosted Mr Blurt with a polite bow,
and asked what he could do for him.

"Sir," said Mr Blurt, summoning to his aid the last rags of his
indignation, "I come to make a complaint. Many of the letters addressed
to our firm are missing--have been missing for some time past,--and from
the inquiries I have made it seems evident to me that they must have
been lost in passing through the Post-Office."

"I regret much to hear this," returned the gentleman, whom--as Mr Blurt
never ascertained who he was--we shall style the Secretary, at all
events he represented that officer. "You may rely on our doing our
utmost to clear up the matter. Will you be kind enough to give me the
full particulars?"

The Secretary's urbanity gave the whole of Mr Blurt's last rags of
indignation to the winds. He detailed his case with his usual
earnestness and good-nature.

The Secretary listened attentively to the close. "Well, Mr Blurt," he
said, "we will investigate the matter without delay; but from what you
have told me I think it probable that the blame does not lie with us.
You would be surprised if you knew the number of complaints made to us,
which, on investigation, turn out to be groundless. Allow me to cite
one or two instances. In one case a missing letter having fallen from
the letter-box of the person to whom it was addressed on to the
hall-floor, was picked up by a dog and buried in some straw, where it
was afterwards found. In another case, the missing letter was
discovered sticking against the side of the private letter-box, where it
had lain unobserved, and in another the letter had been placed between
the leaves of a book as a mark and forgotten. Boys and others sent to
post letters are also frequently unfaithful, and sometimes stupid. Many
letters have been put into the receptacles for dust in our streets,
under the impression that they were pillar letter-boxes, and on one
occasion a letter-carrier found two letters forced behind the plate
affixed to a pillar letter-box which indicates the hours of collection,
obviously placed there by the ignorant sender under the impression that
that was the proper way of posting them. Your mention of rats reminds
me of