s, and in the course of my tour I sold the whole of Margaret's
wares, faithfully remitting to her the money for the same. I think she
would have put her whole stock of goods on me to work off in the same
way; but I never gave her the opportunity to do so.

My journeying brought me at last to Montpelier where I proposed to stay
awhile and see if I could establish a practice. I had disposed of my
millinery goods and had nothing to attend to but my medicines--alas that
my professional acquirements as a marrying man should again have been
called in requisition. But it was to be. It was my fate to fall into the
hands of another milliner.

"Insatiate monster! would not one suffice?"

It seems not. There was a milliner at Rutland whose family and, friends
all believed to be my wife, though she knew she was not; and here in
Montpelier, was ready waiting, like a spider for a fly, another milliner
who was about to enmesh me in the matrimonial net. I had not been in
the place a week before I became acquainted with Eliza Gurnsey. I could
hardly help it, for she lived in the hotel where I stopped, and although
she was full thirty-five years old, she was altogether the most
attractive woman in the house. She was agreeable, good-looking,
intelligent, and what the vernacular calls "smart." At all events, she
was much too smart for me, as I soon found out.

She had a considerable millinery establishment which she and her younger
sister carried on, employing several women, and she was reputed to
be well off. Strange as it may seem in the light of after events, she
actually belonged to the church and was a regular attendant at the
services. But no woman in town was more talked about, and precisely what
sort of a woman she was may be estimated from the fact that I had known
her but little more than a week, when she proposed that she, her sister
and I should go to Saratoga together, and have a good time for a day or
two.

I was fairly fascinated with the woman and I consented. The younger
sister was taken with us, I thought at first as a cover, I knew
afterwards as a confederate, and Eliza paid all the bills, which were
by no means small ones, of the entire trip. We stopped in Saratoga at a
hotel, which is now in very different hands, but which was then kept
by proprietors who, in addition to a most excellent table and
accommodations, afforded their guests the opportunity, if they desired
it, of attending prayers every night and mornin