could answer you."

"I'll tell you, then, at least so far as I am concerned, I have never
injured, never wronged you. I have therefore nothing to recall, nothing
to redress, upon any part of my conduct. In what you conceive you are
personally interested, I am ready to give a full explanation, and this
done, all is done between us."

"I thought so, I suspected as much," said Calvert, contemptuously. "I
was a fool to suppose you'd have taken the matter differently, and now
nothing remains for me but to treat my aunt's nursery governess with
greater deference, and be more respectful in the presence--the august
presence--of a lawyer's clerk."

"Good-bye, Sir," said Loyd, as he left the room.

Calvert sat down and took up a book, but though he read three full
pages, he knew nothing of what they contained. He opened his desk, and
began a letter to Loyd, a farewell letter, a justification of himself,
but done more temperately than he had spoken; but he tore it up, and so
with a second and a third. As his passion mounted, he bethought him of
his cousin and her approaching marriage. "I can spoil some fun there,"
cried he, and wrote as follows:

"Lago d'Orta, August 12.

"Dear Sir,--In the prospect of the nearer relations which a
few days more will establish between us, I venture to
address you thus familiarly. My cousin, Miss Sophia Calvert,
has informed me by a letter I have just received that she
deemed it her duty to place before you a number of letters
written by me to her, at a time when there subsisted between
us a very close attachment. With my knowledge of my cousin's
frankness, her candour, and her courage--for it would also
require some courage--I am fully persuaded that she has
informed you thoroughly on all that has passed. We were both
very young, very thoughtless, and, worse than either, left
totally to our own guidance, none to watch, none to look
after us. There is no indiscretion in my saying that we were
both very much in love, and with that sort of confidence in
each other that renders distrust a crime to one's own
conscience. Although, therefore, she may have told you much,
her womanly dignity would not let her dwell on these
circumstances, explanatory of much, and palliative of all
that passed between us. To you, a man of the world, I owe
this part declaration, less, however, for your sake or for