"I did not mean to reproach you, old Hib," he said kindly, coming up to him.

"How can any one be so angry at a simple question ?" "Perhaps you expect me to be pleased at such a shameful suspicion ?" "No, not that; but at all events now you can tell me what has happened at our house since I left." "A pretty story that is! Why only to think of it makes my mouth as bitter, as if I were chewing wormwood." "You said I had been robbed." "Yes indeed: no one was ever so robbed before.

There would have been some comfort if the knaves had belonged to the thieves' caste, for then we should have got the best part of our property back again, and should not after all have been worse off than many another; but when.

.

." [The cunning son of the architect, who robbed the treasure-house of Rhampsinitus was, according to Herodotus, (II.