tantly
sleep induced by chloral without paying for it in some shape or form,
Angela's relief from her cares was obtained at no small cost to her
health. When the same brain, however well developed it may be, has
both to study hard and suffer much, there must be a waste of tissue
somewhere. In Angela's case the outward and visible result of this
state of things was to make her grow thinner, and the alternate mental
effect to increasingly rarefy an intellect already too ethereal for
this work-a-day world, and to plunge its owner into fits of depression
which were rendered dreadful by sudden forebodings of evil that would
leap to life in the recesses of her mind, and for a moment cast a
lurid glare upon its gloom, such as at night the lightning gives to
the blackness which surrounds it.

It was in one of the worst of these fits, her "cloudy days" as she
would call them to Pigott, that good news found her. As she was
dressing, Pigott brought her a letter, which, recognizing Lady
Bellamy's bold handwriting, she opened in fear and trembling. It
contained a short note and another letter. The note ran as follows:

"Dear Angela,

"I enclose you a letter from your cousin George, which contains
what I suppose you will consider good news. _For your own sake_ I
beg you not to send it back unopened as you did the last.

"A. B."

For a moment Angela was tempted to mistrust this enclosure, and almost
come to the determination to throw it into the fire, feeling sure that
a serpent lurked in the grass and that it was a cunningly disguised
love-letter. But curiosity overcame her, and she opened it as gingerly
as though it were infected, unfolding the sheet with the handle of her
hair-brush. Its contents were destined to give her a surprise. They
ran thus:

"Isleworth Hall, September 20.

"My dear Cousin,

"After what passed between us a few days ago you will perhaps be
surprised at hearing from me, but, if you have the patience to
read this short letter, its contents will not, I fear, be
altogether displeasing to you. They are very simple. I write to
say that I accept your verdict, and that you need fear no further
advances from me. Whether I quite deserved all the bitter words
you poured out upon me I leave you to judge at leisure, seeing
that my only crime was that I loved you. To most women that
offence w