The waiter laughed me to scorn, with that quiet insolence which a well-fed waiter feels for a customer who pays twenty shillings a week for his board and lodging.

The packet had been given to a very respectable messenger, the waiter made no doubt.

As to whether it was the ostler, or one of the boys, or the Boots, or a young woman in the kitchen who went on errands sometimes, the waiter wouldn't take upon himself to swear, being a man who would perish rather than inadvertently perjure himself.

As to my packet having been tampered with, that was ridiculous.

What on earth was there in a lump of letter-paper for any one to steal?
Was there money in the parcel?
I was fain to confess there was no money; on which the waiter laughed aloud.
Failing the waiter, I applied myself severally to the ostler, the boys, the Boots, and the young woman in the kitchen; and then transpired the curious fact that no one had carried my packet.