ully-kept pathway, and a few bright flowers, on either side,
striving to uprear their beauteous heads above the tangled weeds which
have well nigh supplanted them. Neglect--desolation is engraven on all
around, and even the little wicket, as it swings slowly to and fro,
seems to say, "All gone! go-ne!" The wind, how meaningly it steals
through the deserted rooms, as though breathing a funereal dirge over
the departed! How "eloquent of wo" is that sound! Now swelling forth,
as it were, in wild and uncontrollable grief, and now sinking
exhaustedly into a low and touching mournfulness which seems almost
human! But to our tale.

One bright morning, now many years ago, a lady clothed in garb of
mourning, accompanied by a little bright-eyed girl of perhaps some
nine summers, and her old nurse, alighted at the village inn. Now this
seemingly trivial circumstance was in reality quite an event in our
quiet community, and considerably disturbed the good people thereof
from the "even tenor of their way." Indeed, there were many more
curious eyes bent upon the new-comers than they seemed to be at all
aware of, if one might judge from the cold and calm features of the
lady, or the assiduous care which her companion was bestowing upon one
particular bandbox, which the gruff driver of the stage-coach was, to
be sure, handling rather irreverently, actually seeming to enjoy the
ill-concealed anxiety of the poor old woman for the safety of her
goods and chattels, while the child followed close beside her mamma,
her sparkling eyes glancing hither and thither with that eager love of
novelty so natural to the young. At length, however, the trunks,
boxes, packages, &c., &c., all were duly deposited, and duly
inspected also, by the several pairs of eyes which were peering
through the narrowest imaginable strips of glass at neighboring
window-curtains or half-closed shutters. The driver once more mounted
his box, cracked his whip, and the lumbering coach rattled rapidly
away, while the travelers, obeyed the call of the smiling and
curtseying landlady, and disappeared within the open door of the inn.

Oh, what whisperings and surmisings were afloat throughout our village
during the succeeding week! "Who _can_ this stranger-lady be? From
whence has she come, and how long intend remaining here?" seemed to be
the all-important queries of the day; and so gravely were they
discussed, each varying supposition advanced or withdrawn as best
suited th