‘Mr. Seeheim! Madame Seeheim!’ cried the tailor, who at this moment appeared at the door with a most mortified and contrite air, ‘I beg your pardon a thousand times. I beseech you not to mind anything that Mr. Herbst may say. whole matter is a mistake, and I come before you covered with shame at having requited your kind intentions so ungratefully.’
This speech was as inexplicable as any part of the business; and the pastor and the lawyer looked at one another, as much as to say there was no doubt now that the poor fellow was really demented.
Matters were soon explained. It appeared that the police had made a general perquisition, at a moment when it was least expected, among all the suspected persons in the city. The old woman, by whose ingenuity the pie with the gilt S had found its way to Mr. Seeheim’s apartments, had been taken, and the pewter dish, on which Mr. Heftelmeyer’s name was inscribed, being found in her possession, had led to inquiries, the result of which, with her own confession, cleared up the whole of the mystery.
Mr. Seeheim laughed heartily at the adventure, and readily forgave his neighbour’s impetuosity. The lawyer seized the favourable opportunity for bringing about a firm reconciliation between the parties; and three months after the adventure of the pie, Maurice and Amelia (notwithstanding Mr. Seeheim’s great relations) were happily married.
LINES WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM.
As fair and stainless as this page,
May life’s rough stream be smooth to thee,
Though dark clouds low’r and tempests rage.
Like sunshine on the ocean’s wave,
Calm be the hour when thy bright sun
Shall set beneath the darkling grave.
