Did?" said Mr. Dark. "Why, he went to bed with the unpleasant
conviction on his mind that your mistress had found him out, and with no
comfort to speak of except what he could get out of the brandy bottle.
He couldn't sleep; and the more he tossed and tumbled, the more certain
he felt that his wife intended to have him tried for bigamy. At last,
toward the gray of the morning, he could stand it no longer, and he made
up his mind to give the law the slip while he had the chance. As soon as
he was dressed, it struck him that there might be a reward offered
for catching him, and he determined to make that slight change in his
personal appearance which puzzled the witnesses so much before the
magistrate to-day. So he opens his dressing-case and crops his hair in
no time, and takes off his whiskers next. The fire was out, and he had
to shave in cold water. What with that, and what with the flurry of his
mind, naturally enough he cut himself--"

"And dried the blood with his nightgown?" says I.

"With his nightgown," repeated Mr. Dark. "It was the first thing that
lay handy, and he snatched it up. Wait a bit, though; the cream of the
thing is to come. When he had done being his own barber, he couldn't for
the life of him hit on a way of getting rid of the loose hair. The fire
was out, and he had no matches; so he couldn't burn it. As for throwing
it away, he didn't dare do that in the house or about the house, for
fear of its being found, and betraying what he had done. So he wraps it
all up in paper, crams it into his pocket to be disposed of when he is
at a safe distance from the Hall, takes his bag, gets out at the window,
shuts it softly after him, and makes for the road as fast as his long
legs will carry him. There he walks on till a coach overtakes him, and
so travels back to London to find himself in a fresh scrape as soon as
he gets there. An interesting situation, William, and hard traveling
from one end of France to the other, had not agreed together in the case
of Number Two. Mr. James Smith found her in bed, with doctor's orders
that she was not to be moved. There was nothing for it after that but
to lie by in London till the lady got better. Luckily for us, she didn't
hurry herself; so that, after all, your mistress has to thank the very
woman who supplanted her for clearing her character by helping us to
find Mr. James Smith."

"And, pray, how did you come by that loose hair of his which you showed
before the