In the evening the clerk was sitting in his office in a thoughtful mood, busy over some accounts connected with an insurance company for which he was agent, when he heard a quick sharp knock at the front-door.
"I wonder if it's Hillary ?" he muttered, as he took the candle and rose to open it.
Instead of the surgeon, there entered a lady, with much energy.

It was the _bete noire_ of Clerk Gum's life, Mrs.Jones.
"What's the house shut up for at this early hour ?" she began.

"The door locked, the shutters up, and the blinds down, just as if everybody was dead or asleep.

Where's Nance ?" "She's out," said the clerk.

"I suppose she shut up before she went, and I've been in my office all the afternoon.