which I never finished. I knew that your
father wrote, so that as for news, you were not starved. Anything more
your little mother might have wished to say, though she certainly is no
sentimental writer, would only have tended to make you homesick; and
home is a thing with which, at present, you are to have nothing more to
do.

"I had the satisfaction of hearing by your last letter, that you find
your new mode of life already becoming congenial to you; that your work
absorbs you, and your comrades suit you. Here steps in maternal
jealousy at once, and in terror of losing you altogether, I write this
letter as reminder; also because I have a thing or two to tell you
which may not be indifferent to you.

"In the first place, you must know, that yesterday was the day
appointed for the magic ceremonies with which the Burgermeister thought
fit to inaugurate his villa. The Heavens were pleased to smile on his
designs, and favored him with the loveliest day this year has brought.
In the grounds and garden, every flower that grows and blows, was in
fall bloom and fragrance. Our worthy host--you know him in his gala
mood--was courtesy itself. Wife and daughter attired from head to foot,
in correctest taste and newest fashion; and we poor provincials rigged
out in our best, each one according to his abilities.

"What will you say to your little mother, when you hear that she turned
out in fall ball dress!--worse--what will you say when you hear that
she actually danced?--Not merely a sober polonaise with our host, who
led us by torchlight all over the house, down to the lowest cellar, and
into the park and grounds--but actually valses and ecossaises; even a
heel-splitting mazurka, which your rival of old, the young
referendarius, led off with the daughter of the house.

"Alas! poor boy, it is not to be concealed from you, that the venerable
guardian of your youth took strange advantage of your absence, to wax
wild and wanton in her old age.

"Not only did I join the giddy throng myself; whirling round our
well-known gallery of shells, perfectly undaunted by any flaming
volcano whatsoever, but I succeeded in turning a far stronger and more
respectable head to my own mischievous purposes, and I fear we are a
superannuated couple who have fed the gossips with our follies, for
some time.

"My dear child, it is my own confession, or you might refuse to believe
the papers when you read it in them. Your mamma has finally made up