ething about him.

"This is a very remarkable library for a small village to possess," he
remarked to Miss Lurida.

"It is, indeed," she said. "Have you found it well furnished with the
books you most want?"

"Oh, yes,--books enough. I don't care so much for the books as I do for
the Newspapers. I like a Review well enough,--it tells you all there
is in a book; but a good abstract of the Review in a Newspaper saves a
fellow the trouble of reading it."

"You find the papers you want, here, I hope," said the young lady.

"Oh, I get along pretty well. It's my off-time, and I don't do much
reading or writing. Who is the city correspondent of this place?"

"I don't think we have any one who writes regularly. Now and then, there
is a letter, with the gossip of the place in it, or an account of some
of the doings at our Society. The city papers are always glad to get the
reports of our meetings, and to know what is going on in the village."

"I suppose you write about the Society to the papers, as you are the
Secretary."

This was a point-blank shot. She meant to question the young man about
his business, and here she was on the witness-stand. She ducked her
head, and let the question go over her.

"Oh, there are plenty of members who are willing enough to write,
--especially to give an account of their own papers. I think they like
to have me put in the applause, when they get any. I do that sometimes."
(How much more, she did not say.)

"I have seen some very well written articles, which, from what they
tell me of the Secretary, I should have thought she might have written
herself."

He looked her straight in the eyes.

"I have transmitted some good papers," she said, without winking, or
swallowing, or changing color, precious little color she had to change;
her brain wanted all the blood it could borrow or steal, and more too.
"You spoke of Newspapers," she said, without any change of tone or
manner: "do you not frequently write for them yourself?"

"I should think I did," answered the young man. "I am a regular
correspondent of 'The People's Perennial and Household Inquisitor.'"

"The regular correspondent from where?"

"Where! Oh, anywhere,--the place does not make much difference. I have
been writing chiefly from Naples and St. Petersburg, and now and then
from Constantinople."

"How long since your return to this country, may I ask?"

"My return? I have never been out of this country. I travel with