he usual routine of
the morning's work without speaking to her. After class was over, I sent
for her to come to my room. I myself was much disturbed; _she_ was
perfectly calm and collected; but as I laid the bundle of my own letters
to Mrs. Baxter on the table, and demanded an explanation of their being
found in her desk, she turned pale, and snatched up the packet and held
it tightly. To my question, she answered that I evidently did her great
wrong, but she was used to being misunderstood; that the kindness I had
shown her entitled me to an explanation, which she would not otherwise
have given.

"'It is a weakness that I am ashamed of that has caused this trouble,'
she said. 'I have sat up in the lonely nights and read and re-read my
letters, and then I began to copy them, copied even the handwriting,
till I grew very perfect in it, and then I could not bear to destroy any
of those precious words, but kept them, as I thought, in secret,--but
now some one has _basely taken them from my desk_, and brought them to
you. As for your letters to Mrs. Baxter, there are, I see, only one or
two here. Give me only time and you shall have that cleared up also. I
will write to Mrs. Baxter, beg her to explain how she let these letters
get out of her possession, and ask her to inclose all the rest of your
letters to her. I will take care that her answer shall come _through the
post-office_, and not, as heretofore, inclosed in a letter to _me_; so
that you may feel quite sure that there is no mistake, Madame La
P----re.'

"I felt baffled and guilty before her; and the next three days were
most uncomfortable. I could not but feel _genee_ with Lina, while she
maintained the character of wounded innocence. The evening of the third
day, Justine handed to me a large packet which the postman had just
brought, and upon which there were ten francs to pay. It was directed to
me in Mrs. Baxter's well-known handwriting. I tore open the cover, and a
shower of letters fell on the table. _All_ my letters to Mrs. Baxter,
and one from herself, entreating to know the reason of this 'singular
request of dear Lina's.' I was disconcerted and relieved at once, when,
turning the wrapper listlessly in my fingers, my eye suddenly caught, on
the reverse side, and _printed_ in large letters, these words,--'This
packet was sent to the Postmaster in Bristol to be reposted to ----.'
That was the end of it. I had paid ten francs for learning the agreeable
fact