Nevertheless, for a few days, not a little to my surprise, I
heard no further reproaches. An intense calm pervaded my wife,
but beneath which, as in the sea, there was no knowing what
portentous movements might be going on. She frequently went
abroad, and in a direction which I thought not unsuspicious;
namely, in the direction of New Petra, a griffin-like house of
wood and stucco, in the highest style of ornamental art, graced
with four chimneys in the form of erect dragons spouting smoke
from their nostrils; the elegant modern residence of Mr. Scribe,
which he had built for the purpose of a standing advertisement,
not more of his taste as an architect, than his solidity as a
master-mason.

At last, smoking my pipe one morning, I heard a rap at the door,
and my wife, with an air unusually quiet for her brought me a
note. As I have no correspondents except Solomon, with whom in
his sentiments, at least, I entirely correspond, the note
occasioned me some little surprise, which was not dismissed upon
reading the following:--

NEW PETRA, April 1st.
Sir--During my last examination of your chimney, possibly you may
have noted that I frequently applied my rule to it in a manner
apparently unnecessary. Possibly, also, at the same time, you
might have observed in me more or less of perplexity, to which,
however, I refrained from giving any verbal expression.

I now feel it obligatory upon me to inform you of what was then
but a dim suspicion, and as such would have been unwise to give