Page:The Pocket Magazine (Volume 1, 1827).djvu/195

 The old hussy, delighted at having got so well off, hurried down the stairs as fast as possible, and, gaining the street, got clear away.

Madame Seeheim was delighted with her husband’s handsome present. ‘One would almost believe,’ she cried, ‘that we live in times when good deeds meet with a certain and prompt reward. Yesterday you read to me your sermon against mendicity and theft, and to-day, almost as soon as you have finished preaching it, this handsome present is sent to you.’

Mr. Seeheim tried in vain to guess who it could be that had sent him this pie. He fixed upon and rejected various personages, and at last ended by declaring that he could not satisfactorily attribute this compliment to any one of his acquaintance. While he was occupied with these agreeable reflections, a scene of a very different nature was acting in the floor below. As soon as the loss of the pie was discovered, a noise and confusion, which may easily be imagined, had ensued. Each person accused the other of inattention and negligence, but the tailor internally blamed himself for the ostentation with which he had displayed the pie; and but for which the accident would not have happened. He enjoined his maid servant, under threats of immediate dismissal, not to say a word of the matter to any one, in order that he might at least avoid the scoffs of the preacher and his wife, who, he concluded, would be delighted to hear of his misfortune.

The inmates of the second floor, in the meantime, had tried the contents of the pie, which they found excellent. Madame Seeheim had just finished dinner, when she said to her husband, ‘I can’t imagine what has happened below; but there is a great noise in our neighbour’s rooms, I hope no accident has happened to the poor woman who is confined.’

‘I should indeed be very sorry,’ said her husband; ‘for, although I don’t want our families to be united, they are very honest people, and I have a great regard for them. They have, upon many occasions, been very