The Adventure of the Virtuous Spinster

Miss Almira Johnson was a virtuous spinster, aged thirty-nine, who / lived in a highly respectable boarding-house on the north side. Her / days she spent in keeping the books of a large leather firm, in an / office which she shared with two male clerks who were married, and a / red-headed boy of sixteen, who was small for his age.

On the evening when my tale begins, Miss Almira, tastefully attired / for her night's rest in a white nightgown trimmed with blue lace, was / peeping under the bed for the ever-possible man, the nightly rite / preliminary to her prayers. She fell back gasping in a vain attempt to / scream, but not a sound could she give vent to. The precaution of / years had been justified. _There lay a man! _ He was habited in a very / genteel frock-suit, patent-leather shoes, and although it must have / caused him some inconvenience in his recumbent position, upon his head / was a correct plug hat. The elegance and respectability of his garb / somewhat reassured Miss Almira, who was unable to believe that one so / apparelled could have secreted himself under her bed for an evil / purpose, when a new fear seized her, for arguing from this assumption, / she concluded he must have been placed there by others and was, in / short, dead. Whereupon, having to some degree recovered possession of / herself, she was opening her mouth to scream at this new terror, when / the man spoke.