W. W. Jacobs

“ Driver and her friend appeared in the front room, and the farmer, with a keen glance at the door of the larder which had just closed, took a chair while his hostess drew a glass of beer from the barrel in the kitchen.
Mr. Negget drank gratefully and praised the brew. From beer the conversation turned naturally to the police, and from the police to the listening Mr. Bodfish, who was economizing space by sitting on the bread- pan, and trembling with agitation.
"He's a lonely man," said Negget, shaking his head and glancing from the corner of his eye at the door of the larder. ”

“ Bodfish affected the widow visibly, but its effect on the ex-constable nearly upset the bread-pan.
"But here," continued Mr. Negget, with another glance at the larder, "he might go on like that for years. He's a wunnerful shy man—big, and gentle, and shy. He wanted Lizzie to ask you to tea yesterday."
"Now, Mr. Negget," said the blushing widow. "Do be quiet."
"Fact," replied the farmer; "solemn fact, I assure you. And he asked her whether you were fond of jewellery." ”

“ Mrs. Clowes said that it did him credit, but, speaking for herself, she hadn't noticed it.
"He was talking about you night before last," said Negget, turning to his hostess; "not that that's anything fresh. He always is talking about you nowadays."
The widow coughed confusedly and told him not to be foolish.
"Ask my wife," said the farmer, impressively; "they were talking about you for hours. He's a very shy man is my wife's uncle, but you should see his face change when your name's mentioned."
As a matter of fact, Mr. Bodfish's face was at that very moment taking on a deeper shade of crimson. ”

“ Negget, angrily. "I'm sure by the lot she had to say you'd ha' thought she was the missis and me the servant. I gave her a month's notice at once, and she went straight up stairs and sat on her box and cried."
"Sat on her box?" repeated the ex-constable, impressively. "Oh!"
"That's what I thought," said his niece, "but it wasn't, because I got her off at last and searched it through and through. I never saw anything like her clothes in all my life. There was hardly a button or a tape on; and as for her stockings—"
"She don't get much time," said Mr. Negget, slowly. ”

“ Here's my uncle been in the police twenty-five years, and you won't let him put a word in edgeways.'
"My way o' looking at it," said the ex-policeman, slowly, "is different to that o' the law; my idea is, an' always has been, that everybody is guilty until they've proved their innocence."
"It's a wonderful thing to me," said Mr. Negget in a low voice to his pipe, "as they should come to a house with a retired policeman living in it. Looks to me like somebody that ain't got much respect for the police." ”

“ Bodfish, we're giving you your chance. Mind you make the most of it, and don't be too shy."
She walked excitedly up the road with the farmer, and bidding him good-bye at the corner, went off hastily to spread the news. Mr. Negget walked home soberly, and hardly staying long enough to listen to his wife's account of the finding of the brooch between the chest of drawers and the wall, went off to spend the evening with a friend, and ended by making a night of it. ”

“ His pipe lit, he turned to his niece, and slowly bade her go over the account of her loss once more.
"I missed it this morning," said Mrs. Negget, rapidly, "at ten minutes past twelve o'clock by the clock, and half-past five by my watch which wants looking to. I'd just put the batch of bread into the oven, and gone upstairs and opened the box that stands on my drawers to get a lozenge, and I missed the brooch."
"Do you keep it in that box?" asked the ex-policeman, slowly.
"Always," replied his niece. "I at once came down stairs and told Emma that the brooch had been stolen. ”

“ I won't have no woman asked here to tea to be got at like that. There's only my friends comes here to tea, and if any friend stole anything o' mine, I'd be one o' the first to hush it up."
"If they were all like you, George," said his wife, angrily, "where would the law be?" ”

“ Mr. Bodfish wrung his hands, and his thoughts reverted instinctively to instances in his memory in which charges of murder had been altered by the direction of a sensible judge to manslaughter. He held his breath for the next words.
Mr. Negget drank a little more ale and looked at Mrs. Driver.
"I wonder whether you've got a morsel of bread and cheese?" he said, slowly. "I've come over that hungry—"
The widow and Mr. ”