"By the way, Squire W.," he broke out, rather suddenly, "perhaps the gentleman would like to hear about that letter that Marshall mailed here to go to New Haven, Ct., and which was misdirected to New Haven, Vt." I replied, that I should be happy to hear any statements that would throw light on the subject in hand. "Well," said the Squire, "there was a great handle made of that affair. You see, this Marshall is a careless, absent-minded genius, and he wrote a letter, into which he put fifty dollars for his old mother in Connecticut, and it didn't get there. Well, he came and consulted me about it, and wanted me to sue B. here, for the money. "'Why, Mr. W.,' said he, 'I'm confident that B. has got it. People say he can't be trusted, and I believe it now.' "'But see here, Marshall,' replied I, 'there are twenty offices or more between this place and the one where you sent your letter; and it is, to say the least, quite as likely to have been purloined anywhere else as here. You had better wait a few days, and I will make inquiries, and do what I can to find out whether B. knows anything about it. If it should appear at all probable that he does, I can assure you that I will not hesitate to sue him.' "So I put off matters for a little while, and before Marshall got very urgent again, the lost letter turned up in the New Haven, Vt., post-office; no one being to blame but the very man who had made all the fuss! The enemies of our friend here, who had all the time been chuckling to think they had him on the hip, felt flat enough, I assure you, when the letter came to light, for they would rather have paid over the fifty dollars themselves, than to have lost this chance of confirming their accusations against him." This turn in the conversation gave me an excellent opportunity of trying the nerves, or the innocence of the post master, without exciting his suspicions in the least; so I remarked, "The New Haven, Vermont, post master must have been an honest man, or this money letter might never have been seen again; as no one would have thought of looking there for it, and if they had, it wouldn't have been very easy to prove that it ever went there." Here I glanced at B., but his countenance betrayed no consciousness that my observation was designed to hit him, and with an aspect of unruffled coolness, he proceeded to say,