e time had indeed passed rapidly. The hint was too direct for
me to do otherwise than apologize and depart.

Since that evening they have treated me with some coolness, nor
can I wonder at it. My constant visits to their house have become
the talk of all St Petersburg; and it is evident that I must
either declare myself the suitor of Natalie or avoid her
altogether. Avoid her! How can I do it? Do not blame me,
Augustus, when I tell you that I have decided to go this day to
the Marquis and ask his daughter's hand. Rank, fortune, every
thing in short, is suitable. Only that mystery--but I will not
think of it. I lay down my pen, and go instantly to execute my
intention.

_30th June._--You will set me down as a fool when you read what I
last wrote. I should perhaps say the same of you, were our
positions reversed; and yet, were you not my old friend and
comrade, I should feel disposed to be angry with you for saying
it of me on this occasion. She is mine, Augustus--mine by her
own and her father's promise. My friend, I am unutterably happy.
I am not able to look forward with any thing like coolness to the
moment when she shall remove that odious mask, and disclose the
lovely countenance which I am persuaded it conceals.

_8th July._--I cannot understand Natalie. She seems happy at the
prospect of becoming my wife; and yet that same melancholy which
I have before noticed, hangs about her, and seems impossible to
be dissipated. Can she have had some previous attachment, some
disappointed affection, which has left its lingering regrets, and
which her present engagement recalls more vividly to her
recollection? And yet, why torment myself thus? She loves
me--that I cannot doubt; and surely her approaching change of
condition, and the separation from her father which it must
sooner or later entail, are sufficient to account for an
occasional pensiveness on the part of a young and susceptible
girl. In vain do I seek for any other probable cause of her
melancholy. At times I fancy that she has some disclosure or
confession to make to me, which she has difficulty in repressing.

_23d July._--The secret is out. Natalie is ugly. You laugh
already at the poor dupe. But beware of laughing too soon: for he
can be no dupe who becomes the husband