“Guess those bright eyes don’t see me,” thought Walter. “I can say, ‘Caught at last.’ I’ll make the door–bell tap again.”
Jingle, jingle, jingle!
“Massy, Walter! how you skat me! Where did you come from? Now you’ll say you’ve got me a–peekin’ at folkses’ clothes. I don’t care if you have. Jest come here!” and Aunt Lydia mysteriously beckoned with a piece of cloth. Lifting the skirt of a blue frock conspicuously ornamented with big silver buttons, Aunt Lydia fitted this bit of cloth into the torn lining.
“There!” said she triumphantly. “The myst’ry is out. I haven’t ben a–savin’ this all this time for nothin’.”
“Why, whose coat is this?”
“It is that Thing’s, that Bel–ze–bub’s!”
“Baggs’? Oh, yes, I’ve seen him with it on. I remember now.”
“I suppose you want to know what I’m up to. Do you remember the fust mornin’ you were clerk and opened the store? Wall, that mornin’ I seed that Bel–ze–bub at the settin’–room winder, as ef he were a–lookin’ in, though he seemed to be a good way in; and arter that, I found this piece of cloth on the blind. Now I think he was not so much a–lookin’ in as a–gittin’ out, and tore his linin’ while he was a–tryin’ to accomplish that gentlemanly action; and ef—and ef—” said the old lady, dropping her voice, but intensifying her emphasis, “ef he don’t keep out of my settin’–room, I’ll—I’ll scald him! There!”
Walter was as much excited as his Aunt Lydia.
“There, Aunt, that just confirms me in what I believe and know, that Baggs was in the store that morning when I had stepped out on to the doorstep.”