This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 edition. Excerpt: ...with the greatest magnanimity." "But--but--I sent it to you." "You sent it to me! Heavens and earth! When?" "Not quite half an hour after you had left the house." "My dear, what superhuman prescience told you that I wanted my watch in exactly thirty minutes? for it was then--or about ten minutes before that, to speak with precision--that I discovered I had left it." "It was no prescience: it was a man." "He couldn't have stolen it, because you sent it to me; but why in the name of the Ganges did you do that? It cost me five hundred dollars, including chain and charms, a stem-winder, and regulated the sun to the fiftieth part of a second." "But didn't you send for it?" "Never!" "By a man with yellowish hair and blue eyes, who said he worked in the office?" "Never: there isn't a yellow hair in the whole office." "O Charlie! then I have lost you your watch," and Lissa caught hold of the sofa. "I give you leave to lose a thousand watches, but not to faint away over it," I said, as I offered her a cup of cold water. "Come, tell me all about it. Somebody has imposed upon you; but maybe we can get a clew to the rascal, and find the watch." "Stop: you sent your card," she said, and took from her pocket my card, slightly soiled. I looked it over: it had evidently been in the gutter. On the back was something in my handwriting. "My dear, if you had only read this!" I said. "Well, what if I had?" said Lissa, restraining her tears with difficulty. "What is it?" I read, --"Tell Bob to bring buttermilk; buy watch-key; mend office-window immediately." She laughed through...