hat has brought me
here. Your house is on fire of hell, and you do not seem to apprehend
it. Did you not notice at the table that she spilled some wine on the
Reverend (?) Mr. Malcolm's head and white cravat, and do you suppose
it was accidental? No, sir, they are better acquainted than you and I,
for he did not start when it was done, but was conscious who did it.
When I entered your drawing-room and saw you standing between these
two graceless villains, I looked around me in order to ascertain how
many of that stripe were present, and finding but one other, I
concluded you had been imposed upon and that I would improve the
opportunity to study human nature. I _should_ like to be informed how
it came to pass that that reverend state's-prison bird obtained an
invitation from you."

Mr. Burchard explained the method of the introduction by a letter from
his kinsman in England, as before stated.

"Have you the letter?"

The letter being produced, after a moment's examination he said: "Very
well done. _Very_ well done. He is better at that than I supposed, yet
many of the letters show more than one stroke of the pen. He is an
Englishman, but learned to write in Germany. He was once a cook. He
does not write Malcolm as if used to it, and that is an assumed name.
Great nerve, assurance, self-reliance, and patience. Is fond of
children. Has more conceit than his manners indicate, kind-hearted man
and even generous in his way, but has no notion of truth or morals.
Should say he had spent much of his time in Baden Baden and other like
places. Is good at gambling, but burglary is his _forte_. Ah! yes,
this specimen of his handwriting, if it is disguised, tells the whole
story of his life. That was a pretty crowd, was it not? for me to show
off, too, that I could read their characters in their faces."

"Is it possible?" soliloquized Mr. Burchard, "and my admirable Maguire
his accomplice!"

Mr. Sidney asked for the last letters which he had received from
Winfield Burchard, in order to compare the two, but examining his
portfolio, all were gone.

Mr. Burchard then stated to Mr. Sidney what had transpired during the
day,--Malcolm's arrest, the giving of bail, the suppression of the
report in the newspapers, and the report which appeared in one of the
journals, his acceptance of the draft of one thousand dollars, and
some other particulars, when Mr. Sidney said,--

"Why were your eyes not opened by the fact that Malcolm did n