s of fortune or crime.

Two or three days after his very agreeable call upon Mrs. Dillingham, he
had so far mastered his difficulties connected with the International
Mail that he could find time for another visit, to which he had looked
forward with eager anticipation.

"I was very much interested in your little book, Mr. Belcher," said the
lady, boldly.

"The General is one of the ablest of our native authors, eh?" responded
that facetious person, with a jolly laugh.

"Decidedly," said Mrs. Dillingham, "and so very terse and statistical."

"Interesting book, wasn't it?"

"Very! And it was so kind of you, General, to let me see how you men
manage such things!"

"We men!" and the General shrugged his shoulders.

"One man, then," said the lady, on seeing that he was disposed to claim
a monopoly in the wisdom of business.

"Do you remember one little item--a modest little item--concerning my
foreign deposits? Eh?"

"Little item, General! What are you doing with so much money over
there?"

"Nothing, or next to nothing. That's my anchor to windward."

"It will hold," responded the lady, "if weight is all that's needed."

"I intend that it shall hold, and that it shall be larger before it is
smaller."

"I don't understand it;" and Mrs. Dillingham shook her pretty head.

Mr. Belcher sat and thought. There was a curious flush upon his face, as
he raised his eyes to hers, and looked intensely into them, in the
endeavor to read the love that hid behind them. He was desperately in
love with her. The passion, a thousand times repelled by her, and a
thousand times diverted by the distractions of his large affairs, had
been raised to new life by his last meeting with her; and the
determinations of his will grew strong, almost to fierceness. He did not
know what to say, or how to approach the subject nearest to his heart.
He had always frightened her so easily; she had been so quick to resent
any approach to undue familiarity; she had so steadily ignored his
insinuations, that he was disarmed.

"What are you thinking about, General?"

"You've never seen me in one of my trances, have you?" inquired Mr.
Belcher, with trembling lips and a forced laugh.

"No! Do you have trances?"

"Trances? Yes; and visions of the most stunning character. Talbot has
seen me in two or three of them."

"Are they dangerous?"

"Not at all. The General's visions are always of a celestial
character,--warranted not to injure the mos