rope, which was a
great inducement. Baltimore was a kind of paradise to her, and her
friends there were very dear ones. Her room-mate at Madame Riche's,
who was her very best friend, lived quite near my uncle Hunter's, and
she had not seen her for months. Besides, Boston was getting dull, and
she was tired, and Baltimore air always made her well. So it was
settled, and Kitty went.

"Papa carried her on; and for the first week she had a cold, and was
not out of the house. However, her letters were very happy ones; the
contents being mostly abstracts of conversations between herself and
the dear Alice Thornton, and bits of Baltimore gossip, in which I
wasn't particularly interested. But the cold got better, and her
letters grew rather shorter as she got farther into the round of
parties and pleasure.

"Finally there came a very thick letter, and there was something new
on the stage. She wrote to me somewhat after this fashion, while
staying with Miss Thornton:--

"'You're not to tell this, Margie; but I'm getting involved in what
seems to be a mystery. Ever since I've been here, the girls have
talked to me of the most charming gentleman ever seen in Baltimore,
and they all declared I must be introduced; so at last I got up quite
a curiosity. They said he was an Englishman, very rich, and so
handsome! why! if one were to believe their stories, he might be
carried about for a show! He was said to be very reserved, and to pay
very little attention to any of the young ladies. He knows
Mr. Thornton, Alice's father; and they are good friends, so Alice has
seen a good deal of him, and he has been more polite to her than to
any one else.

"'She had told him of me, and he seemed quite anxious to know me. She
had promised to present him the very first chance, and that was last
night at her party.

"'I wish I had time to tell you about it. Every one says it was one of
the most delightful ones ever given in Baltimore, and I did enjoy it
wonderfully. But do let me tell you about the Englishman. It was about
eleven before he came, and every thing was at its height. I was
dancing with Mr. Dent; and the moment I stopped, up came Alice, with
the most elegant-looking man I ever saw; and the strangest thing is,
that I think now, and thought then, I have seen him somewhere before.
He watched me intently as he crossed the room, and asked Alice, as she
has told me to-day, who I was; and when she said, "That is Kitty
Tennant," he looked