"Oh, fie, Walter! Now I think you were so frightened that you could not speak."
"I shall know better than to intrust him to your care again," said indignant mamma, as one who withdrew a blessed privilege.
"Don't say that, mother; it would be a punishment too severe," said the mischievous little pale sister, in tones of pity, and her face brimming with mirth.
Everybody laughed, and peace was restored.
On the third evening, misery came to me in an envelope post-marked New
York:—
"My DEAR PLOVINS:—
"I shall be with you the night after you receive this. Engage a room for me. Have you seen anything of a Miss Tarlingford, where you are staying? You should know her. She is very brilliant and accomplished, but is retiring. I am willing to tell you, but it must go no farther, that we are betrothed.
"Yours, in a hurry,
"FRANK LILLIVAN."
My heart was as the mercury of a thermometer which is plunged into ice; but I preserved an outward composure. Turning over the pile of letters awaiting owners, I came upon one, directed in Lillivan's handwriting, to Miss A. Tarlingford, etc., etc.