urst of grief, knowing that it must be a
great relief to her overtaxed system after the strain of the last few
days. She was soon again calm, and resumed her writing. A letter to her
parents, informing them of her secret marriage and sudden widowhood, was
next written, and Lina, in her plain bonnet and shawl and closely
veiled, set off with the three letters to the post-office."

Here Madame paused. She smiled faintly.

"I find that I have become again unconsciously, interested in Lina, as I
have told her story, and I hesitate to approach the _denoument_;
but"--and she sighed delicately, not sufficiently to disperse the
smile--"I must go through with this, as Lina herself used to say. One
night about this time I had been writing late, and it was past midnight
when I descended with my lamp in my hand to go the round of the
class-rooms, as is my wont before retiring to rest. I paused, as I
passed down the school-room, opposite the _Sainte Croix_, and repeated
my _salut_ before the Holy Emblem. As I finished the last words, my eyes
fell on a small slip of paper lying on Lina's desk, on which my own name
was written three times, in what appeared my own handwriting,--Jeanne
Clinie La P----re. A cold shudder ran through me, as if I had heard my
name in the accents of my _double_. Obeying a sudden impulse, I opened
Lina's desk, and seized the papers within. Uppermost lay a thick
_cahier_, in which, in Lina's writing, were what at first seemed copies
of all the letters she had received from England within the last few
months. There were also facsimiles of letters to me from Mrs. Baxter,
Mr. A. Kirkdale, and others. Then there were draughts of the same
letters, written in the various handwritings with which I had become
familiar, as those of Lina's and my own English correspondents. Here and
there were improvements and corrections in Lina's own writing. Below
these lay piles of letters,--a bundle of ten letters of my own, forming
part of my correspondence with Mrs. Baxter, and which I had intrusted to
Lina at various times to post. These were without envelopes, and simply
tied together. I sat there for more than an hour, stupefied by this
strange revelation; and then, taking the bundle of my own letters
addressed to Mrs. Baxter, I went to my room.

"Next morning, when I descended to the school-room, I glanced, in
passing, at Lina, and thought I perceived a slightly fluttered,
disturbed expression in her face; but I continued t