lan, without awakening any corresponding affection
on his side.

"I did my best to interfere, delicately and usefully, while it was still
possible to interfere with advantage. Unhappily, my niece refused
to place any confidence in me. She persistently denied that she was
actuated by any warmer feeling toward Mr. Macallan than a feeling of
friendly interest. This made it impossible for me to separate them
without openly acknowledging my reason for doing so, and thus producing
a scandal which might have affected my niece's reputation. My husband
was alive at that time; and the one thing I could do under the
circumstances was the thing I did. I requested him to speak privately
to Mr. Macallan, and to appeal to his honor to help us out of the
difficulty without prejudice to my niece.

"Mr. Macallan behaved admirably. He was still helpless. But he made an
excuse for leaving us which it was impossible to dispute. In two days
after my husband had spoken to him he was removed from the house.

"The remedy was well intended; but it came too late, and it utterly
failed. The mischief was done. My niece pined away visibly; neither
medical help nor change of air and scene did anything for her. In
course of time--after Mr. Macallan had recovered from the effects of his
accident--I found that she was carrying on a clandestine correspondence
with him by means of her maid. His letters, I am bound to say, were most
considerately and carefully written. Nevertheless, I felt it my duty to
stop the correspondence.

"My interference--what else could I do but interfere?--brought matters
to a crisis. One day my niece was missing at breakfast-time. The next
day we discovered that the poor infatuated creature had gone to Mr.
Macallan's chambers in London, and had been found hidden in his bedroom
by some bachelor friends who came to visit him.

"For this disaster Mr. Macallan was in no respect to blame. Hearing
footsteps outside, he had only time to take measures for saving her
character by concealing her in the nearest room--and the nearest room
happened to be his bedchamber. The matter was talked about, of course,
and motives were misinterpreted in the vilest manner. My husband
had another private conversation with Mr. Macallan. He again behaved
admirably. He publicly declared that my niece had visited him as his
betrothed wife. In a fortnight from that time he silenced scandal in the
one way that was possible--he married her.

"I was alon