ABSTRACT
One day, while I continued in this situation, a circumstance occurred, which involuntarily attracted my attention. Two of our people had been sent to a town at some distance for the purpose of procuring us 53 [some] things of which we were in want. After having delivered these to our landlady, they retired to one corner of the room, and, one of them pulling a printed paper from his pocket, they mutually occupied themselves in examining its contents. I was sitting in an easy chair by the fire, being considerably better than I had been, though still in a weak and languid state. Having read for a considerable time, they looked at me, and then at the paper, and then at / me again. They then went out of the room together, as if to consult without interruption upon something which that paper suggested to them. Some time after they returned, and my protector, who 54 [happened to be above stairs,] entered the room at the same instant.
