I don't believe she tries to
captivate half so much as mamma does herself."

There were more tears and lamentations, and from amidst the disjointed
medley, Wilfred Vaughn learned that a great wrong had been done a
beautiful and innocent girl, and he had been the unconscious cause. He
sat buried in thought long after the twilight shadows had gathered and
deepened around him. The artless questions of Alice had startled him
into a knowledge of his own true position, and he knew now that he loved
this sweet-faced young girl who was yet almost a stranger to him. He
knew but little of her former life or antecedents, yet he would have
staked worlds on her truth and honor. He had not before dreamed of the
possibility, but now the conviction fastened upon him that this was his
fate. He knew in that hour of self-communion that the love of Clemence
Graystone was necessary to his happiness, and he made one firm resolve
to win her for his own.

"Alice tells me that you have dismissed Miss Graystone?" he said
inquiringly to his sister-in-law, a few days after. "I was surprised to
hear it. I thought you well pleased with her."

"You will be still more surprised," replied the lady, "when I tell you
the cause of her dismissal. I have been imposed upon by the girl too
long already, but nobody would have dreamed, from her meek ways, that
she was anything but perfection. I did not intend to trouble you with
the affair, which is the reason of my not asking your advice before
acting so much against my own inclination. I would not have believed
anything of Miss Graystone from a third party, for I know she is an
orphan and friendless, and I do try and be charitable towards all poor
and worthy persons. And then too, Will, you know how I have been
bothered about a teacher, and she suited the place so well, I think it
was positively ungrateful in her to act as she did."

This last remark was uttered with a pretty affectation of impatience,
and a pout of the rich, red lips, and Wilfred Vaughn, listening, forgot
for the moment his interest in the young teacher, so lost was he in
admiration of the beautiful face before him.

"But, what did you =find= out?" he said, again returning to the subject.

"Read this, and you will see that she has condemned herself," she
answered, handing him a letter, "and thank me for preserving you from
the snare that was laid from your unwary footsteps."

It was written in a delicate lady's hand, and ran as follo