dmirers. And then, would it
be right to conceal her antecedents? And if they should be explained
or accidentally discovered, after her young affections were engaged,
what disappointment and sadness might follow!

But Flora's future was in a fair way to take care of itself. One day
she came flying into the parlor with her face all aglow. "O Mamita
Lila," exclaimed she, "I have had such a pleasant surprise! I went to
Mr. Goldwin's store to do your errand, and who should I find there but
Florimond Blumenthal!"

"And, pray, who is Florimond Blumenthal?" inquired Mrs. Delano.

"O, haven't I told you? I thought I had told you all about everybody
and everything. He was a poor orphan, that papa took for an
errand-boy. He sent him to school, and afterward he was his clerk. He
came to our house often when I was a little girl; but after he grew
tall, papa used to send an old negro man to do our errands. So I
didn't see him any more till _cher papa_ died. He was very kind to us
then. He was the one that brought those beautiful baskets I told you
of. Isn't it funny? They drove him away from New Orleans because they
said he was an Abolitionist, and that he helped us to escape, when he
didn't know anything at all about it. He said he heard we had gone to
the North. And he went looking all round in New York, and then he came
to Boston, hoping to see us or hear from us some day; but he had about
done expecting it when I walked into the store. You never saw anybody
so red as he was, when he held out his hand and said, in such a
surprised way, 'Miss Royal, is it you?' Just out of mischief, I told
him very demurely that my name was Delano. Then he became very formal
all at once, and said, 'Does this silk suit you, Mrs. Delano?' That
made me laugh, and blush too. I told him I wasn't married, but a kind
lady in Summer Street had adopted me and given me her name. Some other
customers came up to the counter, and so I had to come away."

"Did you ask him not to mention your former name?" inquired Mrs.
Delano.

"No, I hadn't time to think of that," replied Flora; "but I _will_ ask
him."

"Don't go to the store on purpose to see him, dear. Young ladies
should be careful about such things," suggested her maternal friend.

Two hours afterward, as they returned from a carriage-drive, Flora had
just drawn off her gloves, when she began to rap on the window, and
instantly darted into the street. Mrs. Delano, looking out, saw her on
the opposi