on to the floor. There were, indeed, "matches" in the house, but there
were no children, except one old lady, who, having reached her second
childhood, might perhaps have been regarded as a child. It is true
there was a certain Betty, a housemaid, whose fingers were reported by
the cook to be "all thumbs," and who had an awkward and incurable
tendency to spill, and break, and drop, and fall over things, on whom
suspicion fastened very keenly at first; but Betty, who was young and
rather pretty, asserted so earnestly that she had been unusually happy
that night in having done nothing whatever of a condemnable nature, and
backed her asseverations with such floods of tears, that she was
exonerated, and, as we have said, the cause was reported "unknown."

It was not, however, so completely unknown as was at first supposed.
There was a certain grave, retiring, modest individual who knew the
gentleman of the house and his doings a little more thoroughly than was
agreeable to the said gentleman, and who had become aware, in some
unaccountable way, which it is impossible to explain, that he, the said
gentleman, had very recently furnished the house in a sumptuous style,
and had insured it much beyond its value. The said individual's
knowledge ultimately resulted in the said gentleman being convicted and
transported for arson!

But with all this we have nothing to do. Whatever the uncertainty that
afterwards arose as to the cause of the fire, there could be no
uncertainty as to the fire itself at the time. It blazed and roared so
furiously, that the inside of the house resembled a white-hot furnace.
Flames spouted from the windows and chimneys, glaring fiercely on the
spectators, who assembled rapidly from all quarters, as if defying them
all, and daring the firemen to do their worst. Sparks enough to have
shamed all the Roman candles ever made in or out of Rome were vomited
forth continuously, and whirled away with volumes of dense black smoke
into the wintry sky.

"It's well alight," observed a chimney-sweep to a policeman.

The policeman made no reply, although it did seem as if it would have
been quite safe, even for a policeman, to admit that the sweep was
thoroughly correct. It _was_ "well alight," so well, that it seemed
absolutely ridiculous to suppose that the firemen could make any
impression on it at all.

But the firemen did not appear to think the attempt ridiculous. "Never
give in" was, or might have