he
supposed, to be polished. He would put on his breeches and wait for his
boots. He cast his eye on the pile of clothes, but the breeches were not
there. Then he looked on the floor, and in all the corners of the room,
and then on the bed and under the bed--but in vain. 'What the d----l has
become of my breeches!' said Mr. Hardesty.

It occurred to him at length that by some mysterious power of locomotion
the garment had gotten into the drawer of a bureau that stood in one
corner. He pulled at this drawer most lustily, but it was locked, and Miss
Sidebottom had the key. To add to his discomfiture, he again heard the
sound of footsteps overhead. He had but a moment to spare, and looking
around for a place of retreat, his eye fell on a closet-door that opened
beneath the stairs. Putting on hastily the remnant of his apparel, he
presented altogether an appearance the like of which the writer has never
seen, and will not attempt to describe, and managed to effect his retreat
into the closet just as Miss Sidebottom and Belinda entered the room from
above.

Mr. Hardesty applied his eye to the key-hole, but saw nothing save the
form of either lady as it flitted from time to time across the limited
range of his vision. Presently a conversation began between the two, of
which, however, he could hear nothing except a confused murmur, and
occasionally a most uproarious fit of laughter. Before long the merry
tones of the elder lady were changed to those of anger. Miss Sidebottom
was evidently scolding one of the servants, and then came reiterated
sounds of castigation, interspersed with tongue-lashings, by far the most
terrible of the two. Mr. Hardesty resigned himself to his fate, and was
willing to endure a confinement that revealed to him the evil spirit that
reigned within a form of so much loveliness.

After a while came the indescribable sounds of breakfast; the rattling of
knives and forks, and cups and saucers, suggestive to Mr. Hardesty's mind
of coffee, hot biscuits, and butter. Presently the table was cleared away,
and he caught a glimpse through his key-hole of the two ladies, dressed in
their cloaks and bonnets. In a moment they departed, leaving Mr. Hardesty
sole proprietor.

Each moment of this time was one of intense agony to Mr. Hardesty. Exposed
to hunger and thirst, and cold and insult, what had he done to deserve
such misfortunes? And that was Christmas, too; what a merry day to all the
world without; and i