"CHARLOTTESVILLE, July 15, 18--.

"MY DEAREST MARY:--We have not heard a word from you since you
left us.

"All your friends here suffer the deepest anxiety on your
account, fearing that you may be ill among strangers.

"Only on Sunday last, when I happened to speak to our minister,
after the morning service, I got a slight clew to you; for he
told me that you had asked him for a church letter to the Rector
of St. John's Parish in Richmond.

"That information gives me the opportunity of writing to you,
with some prospect of having my letter reach you, for I can
inclose it to the Rector of St. John's, who will probably by this
time know your address.

"And now, having explained how it is that I am enabled to write
to you, I must tell you the news.

"The great nuisance of the Commencement is abated. It is all
over; the students, the visitors and the vagrants have nearly all
gone, and the town is empty and--peaceful.

"One set of visitors I lamented to lose. They went on Saturday.

"I mean, of course, your friends from Blue Cliffs. They were all
charming.

"I was very much interested in Miss Cavendish.

"And now, my dear child, although I am no gossip and no meddler,
as you are well aware, I really must tell you what I would not
tell to any other living being, and which I tell you only because
I know you to be perfectly discreet, and also deeply interested
in the parties of whom I shall take the liberty of writing.

"There are three marriages in prospect, my dear. I see it quite
plainly. Our young people are the frankest and most innocent of
human beings. They have no disguises.

"Who are to be married? you ask me.

"I will tell you who, I _think_, will be married.

"First, Mr. Alden Lytton and Miss Emma Cavendish.

"Not a prudent marriage for her, because she is a minor, with an
immense fortune. And he is a young lawyer, with not a dollar of
his own and his way yet to make in the world.

"But what can we do about it?

"With one guardian in her dotage and the other at the antipodes
Miss Cavendish is practically, if not legally, her own mistress.

"The only comfort is that the young man in question is rich in
_everything else_, if not in money.

"Well, the second prospective marriage pleases me better. The
Rev. Mr. Lyle, a worthy young clergyman, is devoted to M