to the Community: the
writer was Mellicent.

Her letter began abruptly, in these terms:

"Do you remember what I said to you when we parted at Tadmor? I said,
'Be comforted, Amelius, the end is not yet.' And I said again, 'You will
come back to me.'

"I remind you of this, my friend--directing to your lawyers, whose names
I remember when their letter to you was publicly read in the Common
Room. Once or twice a year I shall continue to remind you of those
parting words of mine: there will be a time perhaps when you will thank
me for doing so.

"In the mean while, light your pipe with my letters; my letters don't
matter. If I can comfort you, and reconcile you to your life--years
hence, when you, too, my Amelius, may be one of the Fallen Leaves like
me--then I shall not have lived and suffered in vain; my last days on
earth will be the happiest days that I have ever seen.

"Be pleased not to answer these lines, or any other written words of
mine that may follow, so long as you are prosperous and happy. With
_that_ part of your life I have nothing to do. You will find friends
wherever you go--among the women especially. Your generous nature shows
itself frankly in your face; your manly gentleness and sweetness speak
in every tone of your voice; we poor women feel drawn towards you by
an attraction which we are not able to resist. Have you fallen in love
already with some beautiful English girl? Oh, be careful and prudent!
Be sure, before you set your heart on her, that she is worthy of you! So
many women are cruel and deceitful. Some of them will make you believe
you have won their love, when you have only flattered their vanity; and
some are poor weak creatures whose minds are set on their own interests,
and who may let bad advisers guide them, when you are not by. For your
own sake, take care!

"I am living with my sister, at New York. The days and weeks glide by
me quietly; you are in my thoughts and my prayers; I have nothing to
complain of; I wait and hope. When the time of my banishment from the
Community has expired, I shall go back to Tadmor; and there you will
find me, Amelius, the first to welcome you when your spirits are sinking
under the burden of life, and your heart turns again to the friends of
your early days.

"Goodbye, my dear--goodbye!"

Amelius laid the letter aside, touched and saddened by the artless
devotion to him which it expressed. He was conscious also of a feeling
of uneasy surpris