e, Louise, but a termagant.
I could not love Venus if she were a termagant. L.'s head turned by the
unlucky discovery that her mother was noble. In one form or other,
every woman has the same disease--vanity. Name of her intended not
mentioned--easily found out."

The next letter was dated May 7, 1859, on black-edged paper, and
contained but these lines: "I was much comforted by your kind visit
yesterday, dear Marquis. My affliction has been heavy: but for the last
two years my poor husband's conduct has rendered my life unhappy, and I
am recovering the shock of his sudden death. It is true that I and
the children are left very ill provided for; but I cannot accept your
generous offer of aid. Have no fear as to my future fate. Adieu, my
dear Marquis! This will reach you just before you start for Naples.
Bon voyage." There was no address on this note-no postmark on the
envelope-evidently sent by hand.

The last note, dated 1861, March 20, was briefer than its predecessor.
"I have taken your advice, dear Marquis; and, overcoming all scruples,
I have accepted his kind offer, on the condition that I am never to be
taken to England. I had no option in this marriage. I can now own to you
that my poverty had become urgent.--Yours, with inalienable gratitude.
This last note, too, was without postmark, and was evidently sent by
hand.

"There are no other letters, then, from this writer?" asked Graham; "and
no further clue as to her existence?"

"None that I have discovered; and I see now why I preserved these
letters. There is nothing in their contents not creditable to my poor
father. They show how capable he was of good-natured disinterested
kindness towards even a distant relation of whom he could certainly not
have been proud, judging not only by his own pencilled note, or by the
writer's condition as a governess, but by her loose sentiments as to the
marriage tie. I have not the slightest idea who she could be. I never at
least heard of one connected, however distantly, with my family, whom I
could identify with the writer of these letters."

"I may hold them a short time in my possession?"

"Pardon me a preliminary question. If I may venture to form a
conjecture, the object of your search must be connected with your
countryman, whom the lady politely calls the 'wretched Englishman;' but
I own I should not like to lend, through these letters, a pretence to
any steps that may lead to a scandal in which my father's nam