In came a lady, looking every inch a Mrs. Chillingby-Harkworth--tall,
portly, middle-aged, richly dressed. As she eyed me through a pair of
long-handled spy-glasses her volubility was amazing.
"May I inquire your name, sir?"
"Burley is my name, madam."
"Then, Mr. Burley, I have to inform you I was never treated with so
much indignity before. I come here in answer to an advertisement, at
great personal inconvenience to myself, and I am shown into a room
with a number of most extraordinary characters; and one person, who, I
am sure, was the worse for drink, asks me the most impertinent
questions, and when I appeal for protection to another individual, he
tells me that he has enough to do in attending to his own business
without interfering with other people's, and I have positively to ring
the bell twice before I can receive any proper attention."
"I am sorry that you should have suffered any unpleasantness in my
house. May I ask if you have lost a purse?"
"I can't say I have--at least, not for years. I only lost one purse in
my life, and that was when I was quite a child--I've always taken too
much care of my things to lose them. But the friend of a niece of
mine, who was staying with me a week or two ago, took her little boy
to the Zoological Gardens, and she lost her purse. She hadn't the
faintest notion where or how, and when I saw the advertisement I
thought I would call and see if it was hers."
"May I ask you to describe the purse which your friend lost?"
"My good sir, I can't do anything of the kind. I only saw it for a
moment in her hand as she was going out. You mustn't ask me to perform
impossibilities."
"Perhaps your friend could describe it."
"Of course she could, if she were here, but she isn't; she's at the
other end of the country. I've come to look at the purse which you
have found, don't I tell you, and wasted a whole morning in doing so.
I daresay I shall be able to form a pretty shrewd idea as to whether
it is hers, as those who know me best will tell you. My sense of
observation has always been exceedingly keen."