PHILADELPHIA:
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.
1853.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO.,
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

STEREOTYPED BY J. FAGAN. T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS.

Contents.

INTRODUCTION.

On page 392 of the concluding sketch of a late series, the “Tales of the Southern Border,” occurs the following passage:—

“THE ESCRITOIRE.

“The author, being a resident of New York during the period of the leading incidents narrated as occurring in that city, had formed the acquaintance of the principal personage. Himself a Southerner, he had, from the natural affinities of origin, inevitably been attracted toward Carter. The intercourse between them, at first reserved, had imperceptibly warmed into a degree of intimacy, which, however, had by no means been such as to render him at all cognisant, beyond the merest generalities, of the progress of his private affairs. He was not a little surprised, therefore, at finding, one day, an elegant escritoire or cabinet, of dark, rich wood, heavily banded in the old-fashioned style with silver, which had been placed, in his absence, on the table of his sanctum. A note, in a sealed envelope, lay upon it. He instantly recognised the handwriting of the address as that of Mr. Carter, and broke the seal.

“It was evidently written in great haste, but without any sign of trepidation. It ran thus:—