stranger, and all she knew was, that he
had a pleasant voice. Of course, with the
becoming bashfulness and sense of propriety
of a young lady, she wished the matter to be
passed over in silent contempt; but to this
her mother, who was a widow, would by no
means consent.

"' You do not know what it may lead to,'
she said: ' however, hoax or no hoax, I shall
follow it up; I hate a thing dropping through
and hearing no more of it.'

"Accordingly, soon after they returned
home, Mrs. Wigley sent her address and her
daughter's name in the directed envelope,
and the next post brought a letter written
to the mother. It was not long, and I
remember the substance of it.

"'DEAR MADAM,—Let me apologise for my
presumption in seeking to form your acquaintance and
that of your daughter, whose appearance arrested
my attention the first moment I saw her. If she
would honour me by a correspondence, under your
sanction, we should learn something of each other's
character. Do not imagine me to be trifling; I
desire to be a sincere friend to her; and farther
acquaintance may greatly conduce to our mutual
happiness. Believe me to be, with the most
profound respect, dear Madam,

"' Yours very truly,

"'FREDERICK WILLIAMS.'

"Of course, Mrs. Wigley persisted inmaking
Mary write; and, though it was no easy
matter to compose a fitting answer to such a
letter, she wrote with a charming measure
of good sense and reserve. Mr. Williams
prosecuted the correspondence with great
earnestness, and his letters manifested a well-
educated and intellectual mind.

"So long as Mary was acting against her
own inclination and judgment, she did not
choose to mention the matter to me; but as
her interest in her unknown correspondent
increased, she could not conceal from me her
frequent pre-occupation of mind, and in the
course of a month she fully confided in me.
My husband regarded it in a very different
light to what we did, and he urged Mary not
to be entangled in any affair so indefinite and
uncertain.

"' Let me write to Mr. Williams,' he said,
' and he will see you have a friend able and
willing to protect you. I will tell him I
shall advise you not to continue a
correspondence so calculated to unsettle you.'

"' Do you think this stranger is trying to
impose upon Mary? ' I asked, when she was
gone; and my husband was writing his
letter.

"' I think he may have been misled by her
appearance,' he answered. ' In these days
there is no judging a person's position by
her dress; and Mary might be a countess.
It is an unaccountable affair altogether; but
this letter will effect something, for I have
made it very strong.'

"Mr. Williams promptly answered my
husband's letter, and requested some information
respecting Miss Wigley's family, position,
and character. My husband replied
something to this effect:

"'Miss Wigley is the daughter of a surgeon,
who left her and her mother in very reduced
circumstances; they have maintained
themselves by a respectable millinery business.
Her education was that of a lady, and her
character is such as to make her the chosen
and intimate friend of my wife. So strong is
the interest I feel in her welfare, that I should
carefully investigate the principles and
circumstances of any one paying his addresses
to her. You may not be aware that the
limp, observable in her gait, is owing to the
total loss of a limb; this circumstance has
materially militated against her settlement in
life.'

"The next Sunday Mary and I had scarcely
taken our usual seats (she sat with me, as our
pew was near the door, and she avoided
attracting the notice of the congregation),
when the chapel-keeper showed a stranger
into our pew. He was a tall military-looking
man, with dark hair and moustache, which
marked him of a different stamp to the usual
frequenters of a chapel, for who can associate
the ideas of unworldliness and moustaches!
A beard is more patriarchal and even
Scriptural. The stranger bowed to us, and then
composed himself into an attitude of profound
attention. He presented himself again at the
evening service, and my husband remarked
to me, as we walked home: ' I imagine he is
a Polish or Hungarian refugee, and
tomorrow he will call with a petition.'

"But the next morning early there came a
note, inviting my husband to dine with Mr.
Williams at six that evening, at the principal
hotel in our town. He threw the note to me
with a comical mixture of consternation and
fun.

"'This is really getting a serious affair,' he
said, ' I will go out and see if I can meet
this stranger somewhere, and take my
measure of him.'

"I remained at home on thorns of curiosity
and suspense till my husband returned; he
was already delighted with Mr. Williams's
intelligence, information, &c., and said so
much about them, that I thought they had
forgotten Mary.

"' By no means,' he said, ' I have invited
Mr. Williams to meet her here to-morrow
evening, and we must invite a few friends,
who are not in the secret, to take off the
awkwardness.'

"With the first dawn of morning I was
up, and before Mary had left her bed-room,
I was there, announcing to her and her
mother the actual impending interview with
their unknown correspondent. Mary's agitation
was extreme, quite hysterical in fact,
but Mrs. Wigley most judiciously entered
into a discussion upon her dress, and I left
her tolerably composed.

"It was a busy and anxious morning to us