s me I appear to have the power of looking into their hearts,
and there I read strange things. Sometimes they are beautiful things and
sometimes ugly things. Thus I have learned that those I thought bad were
really good in the main, for who can claim to be quite good? And on the
other hand that those I believed to be as honest as the day--well, had
their faults.

To take an example which I quote because it is so absurd. The rooms I
live in were owned by a prim old woman who for more than twenty years
was my landlady. She and I were great friends, indeed she tended me like
a mother, and when I was so ill nursed me as perhaps few mothers would
have done. Yet while I was watching on the Road suddenly she came by,
and with horror I saw that during all those years she had been robbing
me, taking, I am sorry to say, many things, in money, trinkets, and
food. Often I had discussed with her where these articles could possibly
have gone, till finally suspicion settled upon the man who cleaned the
windows. Yes, and worst of all, he was prosecuted, and I gave evidence
against him, or rather strengthened her evidence, on faith of which the
magistrate sent him to prison for a month.

"Oh! Mrs Smithers," I said to her, "how _could_ you do it, Mrs.
Smithers?"

She stopped and looked about her terrified, so that my heart smote me
and I added in haste, "Don't be frightened, Mrs. Smithers; I forgive
you."

"I can't see you, sir," she exclaimed, or so I dreamed, "but there! I
always knew you would."

"Yes, Mrs. Smithers," I replied; "but how about the window-cleaner who
went to jail and lost his situation?"

Then she passed on or was drawn away without making any answer.

Now comes the odd part of the story. When I woke up on the following
morning in my rooms, it was to be informed by the frightened
maid-of-all-work that Mrs. Smithers had been found dead in her bed.
Moreover, a few days later I learned from a lawyer that she had made
a will leaving me everything she possessed, including the lease of her
house and nearly L1000, for she had been a saving old person during all
her long life.

Well, I sought out that window-cleaner and compensated him handsomely,
saying that I had found I was mistaken in the evidence I gave against
him. The rest of the property I kept, and I hope that it was not wrong
of me to do so. It will be remembered that some of it was already my
own, temporarily diverted into another channel, and for the rest