n," and was as
follows:

"DEAR MADAME,--Since our last conversation relative to the
purchase of a certain mortgage, I have ascertained that you can
secure it, by adding one hundred pounds to the amount specified by
the holder. Should you still desire me to effect the transfer,
delay might thwart your negotiation, and I respectfully solicit
prompt instructions."

Twice she read these lines, then slowly tore the paper into strips,
shredded and threw them toward the grate, while a stony expression
settled once more upon her features. The remaining letter was
post-marked New York, and addressed, in a bold, round, mercantile
hand, but when the envelope had been removed, the formal angular
chirography of a schoolgirl displayed itself, and as the sheet was
opened there issued thence a delicate perfume that gushed like a
breath of spring over the heart of the lonely mother.

Several leaves of lemon-verbena and a few violets fell from the folds
of the paper, and, picking them up, Mrs. Orme spread them on her
palm. Only a few withered leaves and faded petals that had crossed
the Atlantic to whisper fragrant messages of love, from the trusting
brave young soul whose inexperienced hand had stiffly traced at the
top of the page--"My darling mother."

Ah! what a yearning tenderness glorified the woman's frozen face, as
the flowers in her hand babbled of the blue eyes that had looked last
upon them, of the childish fingers that brushed the dew from their
purple velvet, of the dainty, almost infantile, lips that had fondly
pressed them, of the holy prayer breathed over them, that ere the
time of violets came again mother and child might be reunited.

Just now she dared not read the letter, dared not surrender to the
softening influences that might melt the rigid purpose of her soul,
and, kissing the flowers reverently, the mother laid them aside until
a more convenient season, and began to walk slowly to and fro....

The play that night was "Kenilworth," and had been cast to admit some
alterations made in the dramatization by Madame Orme, who frequently
introduced startling innovations in her rendering of her parts, and
in almost all her favourite _roles_ refused rigid adherence to the
written text. The reputation of her beauty and former triumphs, the
success achieved on the previous nights, and certain tart criticisms
upon the freedom of her interpretation of Scott's lovely
heroine--Leicester's wife--combined to d