. If I had
important business to transact at a distant point, and needed a trusty
agent, I would select him before any other man in S----."

"I wish no better testimony, Doctor, and am glad to know that I can
procure an agent so well qualified."

"Have you seen him?" I inquired.

"No. But Judge Bigelow is to bring him here today, in order that I may
see and converse with him."

"You will find him," said I, "a young man of few words and unobtrusive
manners--but solid as a rock. I have seen him under circumstances
calculated to test the character of any man."

"What are the circumstances, if you are free to speak of them?" asked
Mrs. Montgomery. "We get always a truer estimate of a man, when we
see him in some great battle of life; for then, his real qualities and
resources become apparent."

I thought for a little while before answering. It did not seem just
right to draw aside the veil that strangers' eyes might look upon a
life-passage such as was written in Wallingford's Book of Memory. The
brief but fierce struggle was over with him; and he was moving steadily
onward, sadder, no doubt, for the experience, and wiser, no doubt.
But the secret was his own, and I felt that no one ought to meddle
therewith. Still, a relation of the fact, showing how deeply the man
could feel, and how strong he was in self-mastery, could not but raise
him in the estimation of Mrs. Montgomery, and increase her confidence.

"It is hardly fair," said I, "to bring up the circumstances of a man's
life over which he has drawn a veil; and which are sacred to himself
alone. In this case, however, with the end of enabling you more fully to
know the person you think of sending abroad on an important service,
I will relate an occurrence that cannot fail to awaken in your mind an
interest for the young man, such as we always feel for those who have
passed through deep suffering."

Blanche was sitting by her mother. Indeed, the two were almost
inseparable companions. It was a rare thing to find them apart. I saw
her face kindle with an earnest curiosity.

"Judge Bigelow's nephew was married, recently," I said.

"So the Judge informed me. He spoke very warmly of his nephew, who is a
merchant in New York, I think he said."

"He is a partner in a mercantile firm there. The bride was Squire
Floyd's daughter; a very superior girl--lovely in character, attractive
in person, and, mentally, well cultivated. I have always regarded her as
the flowe