ew that something dreadful, must have happened! She was so
pitiful to behold, that I could not be angry or jealous! But, I resolved
to know the truth. At the first opportunity, I demanded an explanation.
Bursting into tears, she told me the story of her bitter experience.

"Falling on her knees beside my chair, Martha implored me to be
merciful. 'George,' she said, 'I know that I am the most wretched, and
the most desperately wicked girl on the face of the earth! You have been
so kind, and I have treated you so shamefully! How, can you ever forgive
me? The only reparation that I can now make, is to tell you the whole
truth, without reservation. Ten months before I saw you, while I was at
school near Boston, I met Phillip Plato. The fates would have it, that
we should fall desperately in love with each other, at our first
meeting. In a short time we were engaged. In entering into this
engagement, I did so without the knowledge of my uncle, or any friend. I
did not stop for a moment, to consider my duty to uncle George, who had
always been so good to me. I could think of no one but Phillip, and of
my love for him. In the delirium of love's first dream, the weeks passed
as days! Alas! The dream was passing brief! Somehow, Phillip's parents
became aware of our engagement. They were very wealthy, and exceedingly
ambitious to have Phillip marry more wealth. Angry with him, they came
to me and cruelly declared, that they would never allow him to wed such
a fortuneless girl! With look and gesture of scorn, they told me that
they were just on the eve of going abroad, taking Phillip for two years
of travel, in which they should strive to cure him completely of his
insane infatuation. This, then was the end of my romance. My cruelly
wounded pride, rose up in rebellion. I was furious! I returned scorn for
scorn! I bade them begone!

"'I returned to my uncle's home, my heart hot with the indignation of an
outraged pride, and filled with a determination, to show to the world no
sign, but to use all my strength of will, to cast Phillip out of my
life; to utterly forget him and his selfish, greedy, heartless parents.
When you came, George, I was more anxious than ever before, to please my
uncle in every possible way. I foolishly imagined, that in encouraging
your attentions as a lover, I was helping myself, to forget my love for
Phillip. Oh! What a terrible, cruel mistake! How terrible, how cruel, I
was soon to realize. You will rememb