of them old enough to be my mother,
but they and their husbands are alike--sordid. The hope of money is
even more debasing than the hoarding. Do you understand me? I must
speak or my heart will burst. Are you a wizzard that you have so drawn
me on? Dare I speak? Is it maidenly that I should? There is a spell
upon me. Go to your chamber--there is a spy upon me; I am seen, and I
fear I have been overheard; go to your chamber--here, take this book
and read it if you never have--dinner is at hand, and after dinner--,
but let each hour provide for itself,--at dinner,--well, well, adieu."

She was in the drawing-room, and again the soft melody of
half-suppressed music, scarcely audible, yet every note distinct,
floated to his chamber, and the guest scarcely breathed that he might
hear. There was something so plaintive, so melting in the tones that
they saddened as well as delighted. How the heart can melt out at the
finger-points when touching the keys of a sweetly-toned instrument! It
is thrown to the air, and in its plaint makes sweet music of its
melancholy. Like harmonious spirits chanting in their invisibility,
making vocal the very atmosphere, it died away as though going to a
great distance, and stillness was in the whole house. He stole gently
to the door. There seated was Alice; her elbow on her instrument, and
her brow upon her hand. The bell rang for dinner. The repast is over,
and a glass of generous wine sent the rose to the cheeks of Alice, but
enlivened not her eye. Her heart was sad: the eye spoke it but too
plainly, and she looked beautiful beyond comparison. The eye of the
stranger was rivetted upon that drooping lid and more than melancholy
brow.

His situation was a painful one. More than once had he caught the
quick, suspicious glance of the judge flash upon him. He was becoming
an object of interest to more than one in the house; but how different
that interest! How at antipodes the motives of that interest! He knew
too much, and yet he wanted to know more. He was left alone in the
drawing-room with the timid, modest little cousin. It rained on, and
the weather seemed melancholy, and their feelings were in unison with
the weather.

"I shall leave, I believe, miss, as soon as the rain will permit. I
presume I may go down to the city without fear."

"You will find it but a sorry place, sir. All the hotels are closed and
everybody is out of town save the physicians, and the poor who are
unable to get a