"Who is it that sends the money?" he mused. "A man or a woman? That's the first point. There's a difference in handwriting, I've heard. I must find a way to make sure of that. I suppose the note's as good as the one sent last year." Before the afternoon of the following day, he had thought over a lame little scheme, which he put into execution without delay. He walked to the shop of a tradesman, of whom he was in the habit of buying tools and leather, and having made some small purchases, he offered the note in payment. It was taken, and change given, without remark. "Is your wife at home?" then asked Seth. "Yes," replied the tradesman. "I'd like to see her," said Seth; "I want to ask her about something that a woman knows better than a man." The tradesman called his wife, and Seth had a quiet talk with her. He commenced in a roundabout way. "It's about a friend of mine," he said, "an unmarried man like myself, but more likely to marry, being younger. He's received a letter without a signature, and he's mighty anxious to find out whether it comes from a man or a woman. It's a delicate matter you see." The tradesman's wife did not see, but she waited patiently for further light. "The fact is," continued Seth, "there's a girl he knows and has a fancy for, that another man knows and has a fancy for." "It's a love letter, then," interrupted the tradesman's wife, with a smile. "Yes," said Seth, gladly accepting the suggestion, "and he naturally wishes to know who wrote it." "Yes." "Now the first thing to discover is whether it's a man's or a woman's writing." "How can I help you to discover that?" "If you will be good enough to write just a couple of words--say, Rosemary Lane--on a bit of paper, it might assist us." The woman wrote down the words, and wrote them without a curve; every letter had in it as many angles as it could conveniently accommodate. After this, Seth asked the woman if her daughters would write the same words on separate pieces of paper, and then he obtained a specimen of writing from the tradesman himself. He paid visits to many places that afternoon, with the same purpose in view, and by the evening he had in his pocket between twenty and thirty different specimens of calligraphy. When the children were asleep he continued his examination, and discovered that, without an exception, all the women wrote in angles and all the men in curves. Comparing the writing with that on the envelopes, he came to the conclusion that the addresses were written and the money sent by a woman.