her hair since the bel-wether
dance, tied it round a letter and a stone, and flung it up to Florian,
who caught it adroitly. She went briskly away; but in the distance
Florian caught the last words of the song,--

"The fire may be extinguish'd,
Love cannot be diminish'd;
Fire burns to scathe and kill,
But love burns hotter still."

Florian never dosed an eye that night: he had a letter from Crescence,
and yet he could not read it. At the first ray of morning, he was at
the window, and read:--

"I don't know whether this letter will get into your hands or not; and
so I won't sign my name. I have been to town to get my certificate of
settlement. Betsy has got a place for me in Alsace: I'm going off the
day after to-morrow. I have had a long dress made, too. My mother is
dead, and my father is going to marry Walpurgia the seamstress. I need
not tell you that I can never forget you, even if you had done I don't
know what. If you have been bad once, you're not bad now. I know that.
Be good and patient, and bear your fate. Our Lord is my witness, I'd
gladly take it on myself. I got your father to give me your knife,
which you always liked so much; I hope, with God's blessing, to see you
work honestly with it, someday. Only don't give up hope; for then you
would be quite lost. Don't reproach yourself about what's past and
gone: that won't do any good: but be good now. With the first money I
earn I'm going to redeem your ring and my garnets. Oh, I have so much
to tell you! ten clerks couldn't write it down. I will close, and be
yours till death."

The letter was bathed in a flood of happy tears. Never till now did
Florian know the treasure he possessed in Crescence. And he had not a
little joy left, besides, for the thought that his precious knife was
safe.

14.
MISERY AND FUN.

Florian was sent to the penitentiary for six years. He was almost
pleased to lay aside his velvet roundabout and put on in place of it
the gray coat of the convict; for his favorite was thus saved for those
happy days in which he hoped to see Crescence again. Indeed, the six
years seemed a mere week to his imagination. His heart was so full of
hope again that he skipped over the interval of time as if it had been
but a span.

Monarchical governments have their advantages, and in some respects put
those o