.'

Poor girl! I wish somebody that was worthy to possess her would come and
take her away--don't you, Frederick?

* * * * *

If the perusal of this letter filled me with dismay for Helen's future
life and mine, there was one great source of consolation: it was now in
my power to clear her name from every foul aspersion. The Millwards and
the Wilsons should see with their own eyes the bright sun bursting from
the cloud--and they should be scorched and dazzled by its beams;--and my
own friends too should see it--they whose suspicions had been such gall
and wormwood to my soul. To effect this I had only to drop the seed into
the ground, and it would soon become a stately, branching herb: a few
words to my mother and sister, I knew, would suffice to spread the news
throughout the whole neighbourhood, without any further exertion on my
part.

Rose was delighted; and as soon as I had told her all I thought
proper--which was all I affected to know--she flew with alacrity to put
on her bonnet and shawl, and hasten to carry the glad tidings to the
Millwards and Wilsons--glad tidings, I suspect, to none but herself and
Mary Millward--that steady, sensible girl, whose sterling worth had been
so quickly perceived and duly valued by the supposed Mrs. Graham, in
spite of her plain outside; and who, on her part, had been better able to
see and appreciate that lady's true character and qualities than the
brightest genius among them.

As I may never have occasion to mention her again, I may as well tell you
here that she was at this time privately engaged to Richard Wilson--a
secret, I believe, to every one but themselves. That worthy student was
now at Cambridge, where his most exemplary conduct and his diligent
perseverance in the pursuit of learning carried him safely through, and
eventually brought him with hard-earned honours, and an untarnished
reputation, to the close of his collegiate career. In due time he became
Mr. Millward's first and only curate--for that gentleman's declining
years forced him at last to acknowledge that the duties of his extensive
parish were a little too much for those vaunted energies which he was
wont to boast over his younger and less active brethren of the cloth.
This was what the patient, faithful lovers had privately planned and
quietly waited for years ago; and in due time they were united, to the
astonishment of the little world they lived in, that had lo