stationery is one of my weaknesses). This
letter I know to be sprightly and amusing before I open it, for my
friend Lela has been for two or three years one of my most entertaining
correspondents. We were intimate friends in Paris three or four years
ago, when Lela was a school-girl, and I an _enfant de Marie_, and
although we have been separated by hundreds of miles, by the ocean, and
finally, by Lela's marriage, our attachment continues; so, no
reproaches upon school-girl friendships, I beg.

Lela was married last winter, but she and her handsome French husband
are yet in the honeymoon, which will last, I fancy, forever--certainly
the former Queen of Hearts seems now to care for only _one_ heart. She
says:

"You must be having a lovely time in such a charming place. We have
been to Saratoga. It was stupid enough to send your worst enemy there."

_June 17_.

This week has been quite lost, so far as study is concerned, for nearly
every day has been interrupted by visitors.

Looking out of the window this morning, I saw a carriage containing two
strange young ladies stop before the house. In answer to their inquiry
for Miss Greeley and Miss Gabrielle, Minna informed them, in her broken
English, that they were both in the city for the day. They looked
quite aghast upon receiving this information, for they had already
dismissed their carriage, in which they had driven from Pleasantville,
and knew probably that there was no down train till 4.45, so quite
helplessly they inquired if _no_ members of the family were at home.
Learning that Mrs. Cleveland and her daughters were here, one of the
young ladies, a stylish girl in mourning, desired Minna to announce
Miss Hempstead and her cousin. I puzzled a little over the name while
glancing in the mirror to see that my crape ruffle was properly
adjusted, and my hair in tolerable order. The name seemed familiar,
and yet I knew that no friend of mine bore it.

I found the young ladies in the music room. Miss Hempstead introduced
herself by saying:

"Perhaps you may have heard my name, although you do not know me. My
brother was a friend of Mrs. and Miss Greeley, and was purser of the
_Missouri_."

I was then somewhat surprised that I had not divined Miss Hempstead's
identity from the name and her black dress; but the burning of the
_Missouri_ made scarce any impression upon me at the time, surrounded
as I was last fall by such heavy family afflictions; and the