ys his mother found a paper on her door-sill one morning,"
answered Charlie, "and on opening it several bank-notes fell out. On the
paper was written, 'Use these for William's tuition at the seminary.' So
he is going to school till the money is spent."

"Well, I declare," said Miss Martha, "that was a strange incident. Does
Mrs. Danforth know who left the money?"

"She thinks it was the same one who leaves little bundles of sticks at
her door, every now and then," answered Charlie.

"Well, who is that?" inquired Miss P.

"O, she don't know," returned the lad.

"I am glad some kind soul remembers the poor widow," said Mrs. Allen;
"for I have often feared many of us were too neglectful of the lone
woman."

"You know, wife," said the deacon, "what sad reports we heard of her
hypocrisy; how she assumed an appearance of extreme poverty to create
sympathy and wheedle people into deeds of false benevolence. I do not
think such sinfulness should be countenanced."

"I know such reports were spread abroad concerning her," remarked Mrs.
Stanhope; "but I never could trace them to any other source than that
ranting, blustering Mrs. Pimble."

"What! that brawling, fanatical, crazy-pated, man-woman?" exclaimed the
deacon, vehemently; "pray, don't mention her. The wrath of God will fall
upon her and all the guilty brood who have desecrated His sanctuary, by
tearing down its curtains and converting them into garments to serve
Satan in." The excitable deacon was waxing warm, when his wife gave him
a conjugal nudge, and he held his peace.

CHAPTER XXIII.

"From the hour by him enchanted,
From the moment when we met;
Henceforth by one image haunted,
Life may never more forget.
All my nature changed--his being
Seemed the only source of mine.
Fond heart, hadst thou no foreseeing
Thy sad future to divine?"

Florence Howard sat in a deep-cushioned fauteuil, beside a marble table
which graced the centre of the elegant apartment she called her own. A
loose robe, of India cashmere, in superb colors, with a lining of the
softest, rose-colored velvet, was folded carelessly about her graceful
form. One white hand toyed with the luxuriant chestnut curls, that hung
in beautiful profusion over her shoulders; the other rested lightly on
the cushioned arm of the