"Hester, you must help me in this. The most dreadful, the most atrocious fraud has been committed. Some one has been base enough, audacious enough, wicked enough, to go to my desk privately, and take away my real essay--my work over which I have labored and toiled. The expressions of my--my--yes, I will say it--my genius, have been ruthlessly burned, or otherwise made away with, and _this_ thing has been put in their place. Hester, why don't you speak--why do you stare at me like this?"