, and, as my custom is
in his absence, I open all letters of a private nature, and act as I judge
best regarding them. The wildest epistle imaginable came to him yesterday
and I was thankful that he was away, for he is so very happy that it must
have shocked him exceedingly and I shall need to communicate its contents
very delicately to him.

"That girl of whom you wrote me in your last actually claims to be his
lawful wife--believes it, I suppose, poor child--and cannot understand how
utterly impossible it would be for any one belonging to an old and
honorable family like ours to ally himself with one so low in the social
scale. I am shocked that my brother should have been guilty of anything so
out of character as she represents while he was abroad. I am sincerely
sorry for the wrong which it appears he has done her, if what she says is
true, and shall insist that he provide comfortably for her for the
future; but, of course, the idea that she has a right to come here as
mistress is preposterous, and I trust that you will make it appear so to
her. Advise her to renounce at once all claim to the name, and settle
quietly in some place where she is not known, and perhaps she may be able
to bring up her child in a respectable way, so that its prospects will not
be hampered in the future by its mother's mistake.

"Will and Margie returned while I was writing to you, and both look so
well and happy that it does my heart good to see them. Of course I had to
stop for awhile, but now I will try and finish my letter. I have had a
serious talk with my brother, and he appears to feel very much troubled
over his American escapade, confessed that he had done wrong, and gave me
this hundred pound note, which I inclose for the benefit of the girl; and
I sincerely trust she will do nothing more to disturb a happy household,
and one which will be very much annoyed by any useless scandal."

There followed a little more pertaining in an indifferent way to the above
household, but Virgie had read enough, and the letter fell from her
nerveless fingers, while she sat staring vacantly before her, her brain
almost turned by the heartless words she had just read, her heart broken
with its weight of woe, while a feeling of utter wretchedness and
desolation made her long for death to steep her senses in oblivion.

She forgot all about the paper which had been given her with the letter,
while the hundred-pound note, which had been inclosed with