'It's your fancy,' said the Jew, taking up the light and turningto his companion.

　　'I'll swear I saw it!' replied Monks, trembling.  'It was bendingforward when I saw it first; and when I spoke, it darted away.'

　　The Jew glanced contemptuously at the pale face of his associate,and, telling him he could follow, if he pleased, ascended thestairs.  They looked into all the rooms; they were cold, bare,and empty.  They descended into the passage, and thence into thecellars below.  The green damp hung upon the low walls; thetracks of the snail and slug glistened in the light of thecandle; but all was still as death.

　　'What do you think now?' said the Jew, when they had regained thepassage.  'Besides ourselves, there's not a creature in the houseexcept Toby and the boys; and they're safe enough. See here!'

　　As a proof of the fact, the Jew drew forth two keys from hispocket; and explained, that when he first went downstairs, he hadlocked them in, to prevent any intrusion on the conference.

　　This accumulated testimony effectually staggered Mr. Monks. Hisprotestations had gradually become less and less vehement as theyproceeded in their search without making any discovery; and, now,he gave vent to several very grim laughs, and confessed it couldonly have been his excited imagination.  He declined any renewalof the conversation, however, for that night:  suddenlyremembering that it was past one o'clock.  And so the amiablecouple parted.

　　CHAPTER XXVII

　　ATONES FOR THE UNPOLITENESS OF A FORMER CHAPTER; WHICH DESERTED ALADY, MOST UNCEREMONIOUSLY

　　As it would be, by no means, seemly in a humble author to keep somighty a personage as a beadle waiting, with his back to thefire, and the skirts of his coat gathered up under his arms,until such time as it might suit his pleasure to relieve him; andas it would still less become his station, or his gallentry toinvolve in the same neglect a lady on whom that beadle had lookedwith an eye of tenderness and affection, and in whose ear he hadwhispered sweet words, which, coming from such a quarter, mightwell thrill the bosom of maid or matron of whatsoever degree; thehistorian whose pen traces these words--trusting that he knowshis place, and that he entertains a becoming reverence for thoseupon earth to whom high and important authority isdelegated--hastens to pay them that respect which their positiondemands, and to treat them with all that duteous ceremony whichtheir exalted rank, and (by consequence) great virtues,imperatively claim at his hands.  Towards this end, indeed, hehad purposed to introduce, in this place, a dissertation touchingthe divine right of beadles, and elucidative of the position,that a beadle can do no wrong:  which could not fail to have beenboth pleasurable and profitable to the right-minded reader butwhich he is unfortunately compelled, by want of time and space,to postpone to some more convenient and fitting opportunity; onthe arrival of which, he will be prepared to show, that a beadleproperly constituted:  that is to say, a parochial beadle,attached to a parochail workhouse, and attending in his officialcapacity the parochial church:  is, in right and virtue of hisoffice, possessed of all the excellences and best qualities ofhumanity; and that to none of those excellences, can merecompanies' beadles, or court-of-law beadles, or evenchapel-of-ease beadles (save the last, and they in a very lowlyand inferior degree), lay the remotest sustainable claim.