n a _great_ mental change to be
perceptible in one so self-possessed and patient. She had grown less
attentive to our often exacting wishes; she had become absent and
thoughtful--nay, at times a slight irritation was observable in her
manner; but that which struck us most was the habit she really appeared
to have inherited from her father--of watching for the postman. We
remarked how eagerly she listened for his knock--how tremulously she
asked for whom the letters were directed--and the painfully-repressed
sigh and darkened countenance with which she turned away when there was
none for her! As she had finally quitted the family with whom she had so
long resided, and was waiting for a new engagement, we thought at first
that it was an epistle from some of the quarters in which she had
applied for one she was expecting; but that could not be the case, for
when she had made a re-engagement, and it was fixed that she was to
proceed to the south of France with her future pupils' family, her
watching for the post became more evident and more anxious: nay, to us
who observed it, absolutely painful. What letter could she expect so
nervously? Why was she daily so sadly disappointed? The solution came at
last. It was the very morning fixed for her departure for London, where
she was to meet her future charge. Her boxes, corded and directed, were
in the hall; she stood at the window, dressed for her journey, weeping
bitterly--for she loved us all, and still timidly shrank from
strangers--and we were holding each a cold, trembling hand, when the
servant entered with the letters--"One for Miss St. Quentin."

She glanced at it, suppressed a faint exclamation, and taking it, her
hand trembled so violently that she could scarcely break the seal. But
when it _was_ open, and her eye had glanced over the contents, what a
sudden change took place in her countenance! She blushed deeply, her lip
trembled, and then smiled, and breaking from among us, she sought our
mother, and asked to speak to her alone. That letter had changed her
destiny. It was a proposal of marriage from a man of good position and
fortune, who had won her affections by a thousand acts of attention and
tenderness, but had left her uncertain whether he intended to fulfill an
only implied promise or not. True he had said something of writing to
her, and therefore she had waited for the post with such anxiety, and
for so long a time in vain: but there had been good and suffi