-albeit he may deem the matter trivial--give the contents as
Cashel wrote them:--

Dear Mr. Kennyfeck,--Make my excuses to Mrs. Kennyfeck
and the Demoiselles Cary and Olivia, if I deprive them of
your society this morning at breakfast, for I shall want
your counsel and assistance in the settlement of some
difficult affairs. I have been shamefully backward in paying
my respectful addresses to the ladies of your family; but
to-day, if they will permit, I intend to afford myself that
pleasure. It is as a friend, and not as my counsel learned
in law, I ask your presence with me in my library at ten
o'clock. Till then,

Believe me yours,

R. C.

Now, of this very commonplace document, a few blackened, crumpled, frail
fragments were all that remained; and these, even to the searching dark
eyes of Miss Kennyfeck, revealed very little. Indeed, had they not been
written in Cashel's hand, she would have thrown them away at once, as
unworthy of further thought. This fact, and the word "Olivia," which she
discovered after much scrutiny, however, excited all her zeal, and she
labored now like an antiquarian who believes he has gained the clew
to some mysterious inscription. She gathered up the two or three filmy
black bits of paper which yet lay within the fender, and placing them
before her, studied them long and carefully. The word "settlement" was
clear as print.

"'Olivia and 'settlement' in the same paper," thought she; "what can
this mean?

"Come here, mamma--Aunt Fanny--look at this for a moment," said she,
eagerly; and the two ladies approached at her bidding.

"What is that word?" she said to Mrs. Kennyfeck; "is it not 'Olivia'?
Don't you see the end of the 'l' has been burned away, but the rest is
quite plain?"

"So it is--upon my life!--and in Cashel's hand, too!" exclaimed Mrs.
Kennyfeck.

[Illustration: 093]

"And what is that?" asked Miss Kennyfeck, triumphantly, pointing to
another word.

Aunt Fanny, with her spectacles on, bent down, and examined it long.

"'Battlement.' That is 'battlement' as clear as day," said she.

"What nonsense, aunt--it is 'settlement.' Look at what you call a
'b'--it is an 's.'"

"Cary's quite right. The word is 'settlement,'" said Mrs. Kennyfeck, in
a voice tremulous with joy.

"And there!--I hope you can read!" exclaimed Miss Kennyfeck, "even
without your spectacles--'paying'--'addresses.'"

"Show it to