him a partner, and then--and he strained her to his heart as
he said it--'then I will make you my little wife, Fanny, and take you to
Boston, and you shall be a fine lady--as fine a lady as Kate Russell,
the old man's daughter.' And again he danced and sung, and again she
wept, but this time it was for joy.

He staid away a little more than a year, and when he returned he did not
come at once to her, but he wrote that he would very soon. In a few days
he sent her a newspaper, in which was a marked notice, which read
somewhat as follows:

'The co-partnership heretofore existing under the name and style of
RUSSELL, ROLLINS & Co., has been dissolved by the death of
DAVID GRAY, Jr.

'The outstanding affairs will be settled, and the business
continued, by the surviving partners, who have this day admitted
Mr. JOHN HALLET to an interest in their firm.'

The truth had been gradually dawning upon me, yet when she mentioned his
name, I sprang involuntarily to my feet, exclaiming:

'John Hallet! and were _you_ betrothed to _him_?'

The sick woman had paused from exhaustion, but when I said that, she
made a feeble effort to raise herself, and said in a stronger voice than
before:

'Do you know him--sir?'

'Know him! Yes, madam;' and I paused and spoke in a lower tone, for I
saw that my manner was unduly exciting her; 'I know him well.'

I did know him _well_, and it was on the evening of the day that notice
was written, and just one month after David had followed his only son to
the grave, that I, a boy of sixteen, with my hat in my hand, entered the
inner office of the old counting-room to which I have already introduced
the reader. Mr. Russell, a genial, gentle, good old man, was seated at
his desk, writing; and Mr. Rollins sat at his, poring over some long
accounts.

'Mr. Russell and Mr. Rollins,' I said very respectfully, 'I have come to
bid you good-by. I am going to leave you.'

'Thee going to leave!' exclaimed Mr. Russell, laying down his
spectacles; 'what does thee mean, Edmund?'

'I mean, I don't want to stay any longer, sir,' I replied, my voice
trembling with emotion.

'But you must stay, Edmund,' said Mr. Rollins, in his harsh, imperative
way. 'Your uncle indentured you to us till you are twenty-one, and you
can't go.'

'I _shall_ go, sir,' I replied, with less respect than he deserved. 'My
uncle indentured me to the old firm; I am not bound to stay with the
new.'

Mr