ntion of spending his life at the bar, he became
engaged to Anne Coleman, the daughter of Robert Coleman, of Lancaster.

She is said to have been an unusually beautiful girl, quiet, gentle,
modest, womanly, and extremely sensitive. The fine feelings of a
delicately organized nature may easily become either a blessing or a
curse, and on account of her sensitiveness there was a rupture for
which neither can be very greatly blamed.

Mr. Coleman approved of the engagement, and the happy lover worked
hard to make a home for the idol of his heart. One day, out of the
blue sky a thunderbolt fell. He received a note from Miss Coleman
asking him to release her from her engagement.

There was no explanation forthcoming, and it was not until long
afterward that he discovered that busy-bodies and gossips had gone to
Miss Coleman with stories concerning him which had no foundation save
in their mischief-making imaginations, and which she would not repeat
to him. After all his efforts at re-establishing the old relations had
proved useless, he wrote to her that if it were her wish to be
released from her engagement he could but submit, as he had no desire
to hold her against her will.

The break came in the latter part of the summer of 1819, when he was
twenty-eight years old and she was in her twenty-third year. He threw
himself into his work with renewed energy, and later on she went to
visit friends in Philadelphia.

Though she was too proud to admit it, there was evidence that the
beautiful and high-spirited girl was suffering from heartache. On the
ninth of December, she died suddenly, and her body was brought home
just a week after she left Lancaster. The funeral took place the next
day, Sunday, and to the suffering father of the girl, the heart-broken
lover wrote a letter which in simple pathos stands almost alone. It is
the only document on this subject which remains, but in these few
lines is hidden a tragedy:

"LANCASTER, December 10, 1819.

"MY DEAR SIR:

"You have lost a child, a dear, dear child. I have lost the
only earthly object of my affections, without whom, life now
presents to me a dreary blank. My prospects are all cut off,
and I feel that my happiness will be buried with her in her
grave.

"It is now no time for explanation, but the time will come
when you will discover that she, as well as I, has been
greatly abused. God forgive the au