stock that would scorn to steal, and I
can't say more of Alison than that she and me are of one mind. She
left her 'ome this morning as happy a girl as you could find, and came
back at dinner time broken-'earted. Between breakfast and dinner a
dreadful thing happened to her; she was accused of stealing a
five-pound note out of your till. She said she were innocent, but was
not believed. She was searched in the presence of her fellow shop
people. Why, sir, is it likely she could get over the shame o' that?
Of course you didn't find the money on her, but you have broke her
heart, and she 'ave left your service."

"Well, madam, I am very sorry for the whole thing, but I do not think I
can be accused of undue harshness to your granddaughter. Circumstances
were strongly against her, but I didn't turn her off. She took the law
into her own hands, as far as that is concerned."

"Of course she took the law into her own hands, Mr. Shaw. 'Taint
likely that a girl wot has come of the Phippses and the Reeds would
stand that sort of conduct. I'm her grandmother, born a Phipps, and I
ought to know. You used rough words, sir, and you shamed her before
everyone, and you refused her a _character_, so she can't get another
place. Yes, sir, you have taken her character and her bread from her
by the same _h_act, and wot I have come to say is that I won't have it."

Mr. Shaw began to lose his temper--little Mrs. Reed had long ago lost
hers.

"Look here, my good woman," he said, "it's very fine for you to talk in
that high-handed style to me, but you can't get over the fact that five
pounds are missing."

"I 'aven't got over it, sir; and it is because I 'aven't that I've come
to talk to you to-day. The money must be found. You must not leave a
stone unturned until it is found, for Alison must be cleared of this
charge. That is wot I have come to say. There's someone else a thief
in your house, sir, but it aint my girl."

"I am inclined to agree with you," said Shaw, in a thoughtful voice,
"and I may as well say now that I regret having acted on the impulse of
the moment. The facts of the case are these: Between eleven and twelve
o'clock to-day, one of my best customers came here and asked me to give
him change for a five-pound note. I went to the till and did so,
taking out four sovereigns and a sovereign's worth of silver, and
dropped the five-pound note into the till in exchange. In my hurry I
left the key in the t