acter had half-intimidated before he ventured on the
dangerous proposal. Love had not yet unsealed the deep fountain of her
singularly constituted heart. But I suppose that there must somewhere be
a key to every woman's affections, and that it is generally found in but
few hands,--sometimes in safe ones, sometimes in very dangerous ones. It
was so with Sabrina.

One evening, at a party, she became acquainted with a young sprig of the
medical profession, who was captivated by her beauty. The fellow was
loquacious, prepossessing, and bold, with an air of high life and
fashion about him to which Sabrina had not been accustomed. But though
unsteady, insincere, and wholly unworthy of her, yet the glitter of his
style and manner won her heart, and an engagement of marriage took place
between them, which he, for some unexplained reason, required of her to
keep secret. She was young and inexperienced, and so happy in her
prospects as to give but little thought to the obligation to
concealment. A future was opening to her such as she had longed for; her
ambitious aspirations for a higher destiny were about to be realized.

Somehow the neighborhood became possessed of her secret,--not, however,
from her, but by that intuition which reveals to lookers-on the sure
finale of an intimacy such as every one saw had grown up between her and
the young physician. Her future was said to be a brilliant one; she was
to be rich, and a great lady. There were absurd and wide-spread
exaggerations of an almost every-day occurrence. Some sneered while they
repeated them, as if envious of her elevation, while others went so far
as to suggest surmises unworthy of her virtue. But Sabrina heard nothing
of what the little world around her said or thought. Happy in her own
heart, she was unconcerned as to all beyond.

Months passed away, when all at once her lover ceased his visits. This,
too, was immediately observed by all the gossips of the neighborhood. It
was said that she had been cruelly deceived, even ruined. But she no
more than others was able to account for this unexpected abandonment.
The truth eventually came out, however. The father of her lover had
heard the common rumor, that his son was about marrying an obscure and
fatherless girl, questioned him, and warned him of the consequences. It
was the first serious intimation the young man had received that his
secret was known, and he resolved to cast off the poor girl, seeking to
pacify th