ACUTE DISCERNMENT OF CHARACTER. 137 



acute observation and discernment of character, I will 

 mention the following anecdote. 



He had two small green boxes in his study at Tedworth, 

 in one ot which he kept his letters and papers, and in the 

 other, what money he had in the house. The first of these 

 was one morning missing, the thief having by mistake 

 taken the wrong box, both being exactly alike. Mr. Smith, 

 considering that the fact of his keeping his cash in one of 

 these boxes would be more likely to be known to the 

 servants w^ho were in the habit of waiting upon him in his 

 study than to anyone else, caused a search to be made 

 throughout the premises, and the missing box was at length 

 disco v^ered open in one of the shrubberies. Mr. Smith, 

 upon this, had his whole phalanx of men-servants drawn up 

 in line before him, and put the question direct to each. All 

 having strictly denied any knowledge of the transaction, 

 were dismissed by their master to their several duties. But 

 shortly afterwards one of the footmen entering his study to 

 put coals on the fire, Mr. Smith went straight up to him, 

 and, collaring him, said, " It is you, sir, who took the box ; 

 here is a five-pound note, take it, return me my papers, and 

 begone this moment." The man, guilty and thunderstruck, 

 and at the same time overpowered by his master's kindness, 

 immediately owned to having committed the theft, and 

 said, trembling, that it was the first time in his life he had 

 dope so dishonest an act. Mr. Smith said afterwards that 

 he had remarked this man's countenance, as he stood before 

 him with the other servants, and that his suspicions of the 

 njan's guilt, then excited, were strengthened into certainty 

 by the peculiarity of his manner as he entered the room 

 with the coals. 



]\Ir. Smith was always most precise and regular in his 

 appointments. When he gave Mr. Ferneley his first sitting 

 on Jack-o'Lantern, at Quorn, in 1807, he said he should 

 allow the artist thirty minutes. He sat patiently during 

 that time, looking occasionally at his watch, and the instant 



