love of a high-minded and beautiful woman, in one of the
Northern States, and they were affianced. He returned
South to make arrangements for their marriage, when, most
unexpectedly, his letters were returned to him by mail, with
a short note from her guardian, stating to him that ere this
reached him the lady would be the wife of another. Stung
to madness, he vainly hoped, as many another has done, to
fling the whole thing from his heart by one desperate effort.
Too proud to supplicate or seek explanation, he threw him-
self at once into a whirl of fashionable society, and in a
fortnight from the time of the fatal letter was the accepted
lover of the reigning belle of the season; and as soon as
arrangements could be made, he became the husband of a
fine figure, a pair of bright, dark eyes, and a hundred thou-
sand dollars; and, of course, everybody thought him a
happy fellow.

The married couple were enjoying their honeymoon, and
entertaining a brilliant circle of friends in their splendid
villa, near Lake Pontchartrain, when, one day, a letter was
brought to him in that well-remembered writing. It was
handed to him while he was in full tide of gay and success-
ful conversation in a whole roomful of company. He turned
deadly pale when he saw the writing, but still preserved
his composure, and finished the playful warfare of badinage
which he was at the moment carrying on with a lady oppo-
site; and, a short time after, was missed from the circle.
In his room, alone, he opened and read the letter, now worse
than idle and useless to be read. It was from her, giving
a long account of a persecution to which she had been ex-
posed by her guardian's family, to lead her to unite herself
with their son; and she related how, for a long time, his
letters had ceased to arrive; how she had written time and
again, till she became weary and doubtful; how her health
had failed under her anxieties, and how, at last, she had
discovered the whole fraud which had been practised on
them both. The letter ended with expressions of hope and
thankfulness, and professions of undying affection, which
were more bitter than death to the unhappy young man.
He wrote to her immediately: --

"I have received yours, -- but too late. I believed all I
heard. I was desperate. I am married, and all is over.
Only forget, -- it is all that remains for either of us."

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