ise! Are they bringing a legion of people?
Auntie, I don't believe you have had a cup of coffee yet."

"Don't you? Well, I _have_, my child. Let's go out and meet those
people. They will bring all the dirt that lay loose on the highway on
the soles of their boots. Con," turning suddenly, "you don't look solemn
enough."

Without heeding this last remark, Constance Wardour throws open the
door, and passes out and down the hall to meet the party just entering.

There is Mr. Soames, the mayor of W----, very bustling and important;
Corliss, the constable, exceedingly shrewd in his own opinion, and
looking on this occasion as wise as an owl; Thomas Craig, Esq.,
sub-editor of the _Argus_; and some lesser lights, who, on one pretext
and another, hope to gain admittance and sate their curiosity.

"Really, Miss Wardour," begins the bustling mayor, "really, this is a
sad affair! miserable affair! Must have given you a terrible fright, and
then the loss!--but we will find them. Of course your jewels, such
valuables, can't be kept hid from sharp detectives--a--Corliss, what had
we better do first?" for Mayor Soames, like many another mayor, is
about as capable of fulfilling his duties as an average ten-year-old.

Corliss, however, comes gallantly to the rescue. He is equal to any
emergency; there is nothing, if you take his word as proof, that Corliss
is _not_ equal to.

"First," says Corliss, "I think we had better--ahem--investigate."

"To be sure--investigate, of course--Miss Wardour, you have--"

"Closed up the disturbed rooms," interrupts Constance, promptly. "Yes,
sir; I fear you will find little there to assist you. Nelly, throw open
the library."

The servant, thus commanded, took from her mistress' hand a key,
unlocked the library door and threw it open; and then the farce began.

If there is anything in all our dispensations of law and order that is
calculated to strike astonishment to the heart and mind of a foreigner,
it is our off-hand way of conducting a police investigation. In other
countries, to be a magistrate, a notary, means to be in some degree
qualified for the position; to be a constable, means to possess a
moderate allowance of mother wit, and a small measure of "muscular
christianity;" and to discover a crime, means to follow it up with a
thorough and systematic investigation. Such is not our mode. With us, to
hold office, means to get a salary; and to conduct an investigation,
means to maunder th