instant of its sight, more than satisfied.
It is really superb!--the grounds extensive, and laid out with the most
absolute taste. The house, large and substantial, looks very like an
English mansion; with a certain quaint style and antique elegance,
refreshing to contemplate, after the crude newness and ostentatious
vulgarity of almost everything one sees here in America. It is within as
it is without. Although a great many lovely things are scattered about
of recent make, the wood-work and the heavy furniture are aristocratic
from their very age, and in their way, literally perfection.

"Miss Ercildoune met me with not quite her usual grace and ease. She
was, no doubt, surprised at my unexpected appearance, and--I then
thought, as a consequence--slightly embarrassed. I soon afterwards
discovered the constraint in her manner sprang from another cause.

"I had reached the house just at lunch-time, and she would take me out
to the table to eat something with her. I had hoped to see her father,
and was disappointed when she informed me he was in the city. All I saw
charmed me. The appointments of the table were like those of the house:
everything exquisitely fine, and the silver massive and old,--not a new
piece among it,--and marked with a monogram and crest.

"I write you all this that you may the more thoroughly appreciate my
absolute horror at the final _denouement_, and share my astonishment at
the presumption of these people in daring to maintain such style.

"I had given her Willie's letter before we left the parlor, with a
significant word and smile, and was piqued to see that she did not
blush,--in fact, became excessively white as she glanced at the writing,
and with an unsteady hand put it into her pocket. After lunch she made
no motion to look at it, and as I had my own reasons for desiring her to
peruse it, I said, 'Miss Francesca, will you not read your letter? that
I may know if there is any later news from our soldier.'

"She hesitated a moment, and then said, with what I thought an unnatural
manner, 'Certainly, if you so desire,' and, taking it out, broke the
seal. 'Allow me,' she added, going towards a window,--as though she
desired more light, but in reality, I knew, to turn her back upon
me,--forgetting that a mirror, hanging opposite, would reveal her face
with distinctness to my gaze.

"It was pale to ghastliness, with a drawn, haggard look about the mouth
and eyes that shocked as much as it am