unhappy episode in my life not to know how inestimable is the
service you render me. I am saved all further molestation from the
man who had indeed no right over my freedom, but whose persecution
might compel me to the scandal and disgrace of an appeal to the law
for protection, and the avowal of the illegal marriage into which I
was duped. I would rather be torn limb from limb by wild horses,
like the Queen in the history books, than dishonour myself and the
ancestry which I may at least claim on the mother's side, by
proclaiming that I had lived with that low Englishman as his wife,
when I was only--O heavens, I cannot conclude the sentence!

"No, Mons. le Marquis, I am in no want of the pecuniary aid you so
generously wish to press on me. Though I know not where to address
my poor dear uncle,--though I doubt, even if I did, whether I could
venture to confide to him the secret known only to yourself as to
the name I now bear--and if he hear of me at all he must believe me
dead,--yet I have enough left of the money he last remitted to me
for present support; and when that fails, I think, what with my
knowledge of English and such other slender accomplishments as I
possess, I could maintain myself as a teacher or governess in some
German family. At all events, I will write to you again soon, and I
entreat you to let me know all you can learn about my uncle. I feel
so grateful to you for your just disbelief of the horrible calumny
which must be so intolerably galling to a man so proud, and,
whatever his errors, so incapable of a baseness.

"Direct to me Poste restante, Augsburg.

"Yours with all consideration,
LETTER II.

(Seven months after the date of Letter 1.)

"AUGSBURG.

"DEAR M. LE MARQUIS,--I thank you for your kind little note
informing me of the pains you have taken, as yet with no result, to
ascertain what has become of my unfortunate uncle. My life since I
last wrote has been a very quiet one. I have been teaching among a
few families here; and among my pupils are two little girls of very
high birth. They have taken so great a fancy to me that their
mother has just asked me to come and reside at their house as
governess. What wonderfully kind hearts those Germans have,--so
simple, so truthful! They raise no troublesome questions,--accept
my own story implicitly." Here follow a few commonplace s