yet
unopened. It comes from Laura. It is in reply to one which has cost you
very much of exquisite elaboration. You have made your avowal of feeling
as much like a poem as your education would admit. Indeed it was a
pretty letter,--promising not so much the trustful love of an earnest
and devoted heart, as the fervor of a passion which consumed you, and
glowed like a furnace through the lines of your letter. It was a
confession in which your vanity of intellect had taken very entertaining
part, and in which your judgment was too cool to appear at all.

She must needs break out into raptures at such a letter; and her own
will doubtless be tempered with even greater passion.

It is well to shift your chair somewhat, so that the clerks of the
office may not see your emotion as you read. It would be silly to
manifest your exuberance in a dismal, dark office of your instructing
attorney. One sighs rather for woods, and brooks, and sunshine, in whose
company the hopes of youth stretch into fulfilment.

We will look only at a closing passage:--

* * * * *

----"My friend Clarence will, I trust, believe me, when I say that his
letter was a surprise to me. To say that it was very grateful, would be
what my womanly vanity could not fail to claim. I only wish that I was
equal to the flattering portrait which he has drawn. I even half fancy
that he is joking me, and can hardly believe that my matronly air should
have quite won his youthful heart. At least I shall try not to believe
it; and when I welcome him one day, the husband of some fairy who is
worthy of his love, we will smile together at the old lady who once
played the Circe to his senses. Seriously, my friend Clarence, I know
your impulse of heart has carried you away, and that in a year's time,
you will smile with me at your old _penchant_ for one so much your
senior, and so ill-suited to your years, as your true friend,
LAURA."

* * * * *

----Magnificent Miss Dalton!

Read it again. Stick your knife in the desk:--tut!--you will break the
blade! Fold up the letter carefully, and toss it upon your pile of
papers. Open Chitty again;--pleasant reading is Chitty! Lean upon your
hand--your two hands, so that no one will catch sight of your face.
Chitty is very interesting,--how sparkling and imaginative!--what a
depth and flow of passion in Chitty!

The office is a capital place--so quiet and sunny. Law