r of
cold politeness, to excuse her daughter, as she was engaged.

"Not engaged to _me_," said Mary, evincing surprise.

"You must excuse her, Miss Halloran; she is engaged this morning,"
returned the mother, with as much distance and formality as at
first.

Mary Halloran turned away, evidently offended.

"Ah me!" sighed Mrs. Leland, as she closed the door upon the giddy
young girl; "how much trouble has my indiscreetness cost me. My
husband was right, and I felt that he was right; but, in the face of
his better judgment, I sought the acquaintance of this woman, and
now, where the consequences are to end, heaven only knows."

"Was that Mary Halloran?" inquired Jane, who came down stairs as her
mother returned along the passage.

"It was," replied the mother.

"Why did she go away?"

"I told her you were engaged."

"Why, mother!" Jane seemed greatly disturbed.

"It is your father's wish as well as mine," said Mrs. Leland calmly,
"that all intercourse between you and this young lady cease, and for
reasons that I have tried to explain to you. She is one whose
company you cannot keep without injury."

Jane answered with tears, and retired to her chamber, where she
wrote a long and tender letter to Mary, explaining her position.
This letter she got the chambermaid to deliver, and bribed her to
secrecy. Mary replied, in an epistle full of sympathy for her
unhappy condition, and full of indignation at the harsh judgment of
her parents in regard to herself. The letter contained various
suggestions in regard to the manner in which Jane ought to conduct
herself, none of them at all favorable to submission and concluded
with warm attestations of friendship.

From that time an active correspondence took place between the young
ladies, and occasional meetings at times when the parents of Jane
supposed her to be at the houses of some of their friends.

As for Mrs. Halloran, she was seriously offended at the sudden
repulse both she and her daughter had met, and spared no pains, and
let no opportunity go unimproved, for saying hard things of Mrs.
Leland and her family. Even while Mary was carrying on a tender and
confidential correspondence with Jane, she was hinting disreputable
things against the thoughtless girl, and doing her a serious injury.

The first intimation that the parents had of any thing being wrong,
was the fact that two very estimable ladies, for whom they had a
high respect, and with whose daughters