“It is thieves! It is thieves!” cried the dressmaker.
“It is nothing I tell you—unfold this gown.”
“Toc!—Toc!—Toc!—Toc!” louder and louder!
And the poor dressmaker, half dead with fright, was in such a state that she could show no more clothes. And Fannie put on her hat and coat, and hurried away to the restaurant where she found her father walking nervously up and down.
“Ah! how thoughtful of you, dear child, to be prompt!” he said, as he led her to a table. And the delicious food soon made her forget her annoyance.
When Fannie returned home she was so fatigued that she put on a charming wrapper, and lay down to rest. Then she remembered that she had an engagement to see a poor man at two o’clock, whose want she had promised to relieve. She took the fatal watch from her neck, and giving it to the maid, said:—
“Take this, and carry it to the cellar, so that I may be rid of it!”
Two o’clock struck, and the poor old man, who had had nothing to eat for three days, presented himself. The maid told him that Miss Fannie was sleeping and would not see him. With tears streaming down his cheeks, he bowed humbly and was turning away, when everybody in the house jumped to the ceiling.
“Paf! Paf! Paf! Paf!” It was like so many shots from a pistol.
The neighbours commenced screaming. The servants ran frantically to and fro.