dy saw it save _me_. My New England blood could not, I am proud
to say, grasp it! You know, my poor darling, the opinion I have _always_
had concerning Tita's mother, who slyly and artfully inveigled your
honored father into a _trap_. Tita has therefore but followed in her
mother's footsteps.

"That Erastus has ever _cared_, or cares now in the least, for her, save
as a plaything, I will _never_ believe. But Pere Michaux is like a
_mule_ for stubbornness, as you know, and I fear he will marry them in
_any_ case. He did not seem to think of _you_ at all, and when I said,
'Anne will _die_ of grief!' he only smiled--yes, _smiled_--and Frenchly
shrugged his shoulders! My poor child, I have but little hope, because
if he appeals to Erastus's _honor_, what can the boy do? He is the soul
of honor.

"I can hardly write, my brain has been so overturned. To think that
_Tita_ should have outwitted us all at her age, and gained her point
over everything, over you and over Rast--poor, poor Rast, who will be so
_miserably_ sacrificed! I will write again to-morrow; but if Pere
Michaux carries out his strange _Jesuitical_ design, you will hear from
him probably before you can hear again from me. Bear up, my dearest
Anne. I acknowledge that, so far, I have found it difficult to see the
Divine purpose in this, unless indeed it be to inform us that we are all
but cinders and ashes; which, however, I for one have long known."

Mrs. Bryden's letter:

"DEAR ANNE,--I feel drawn toward you more closely since the illness and
death of our dear Dr. Gaston, who loved you so tenderly, and talked so
much of you during his last days with us. It is but a short time since I
wrote to you, giving some of the messages he left, and telling of his
peaceful departure; but now I feel that I must write again upon a
subject which is painful, yet one upon which you should have, I think,
all the correct details immediately. Miss Hinsdale is no doubt writing
to you also; but she does not know all. She has not perceived, as we
have, the gradual approaches to this catastrophe--I can call it by no
other name.

"When you went away, your half-sister was a child. With what has seemed
lightning rapidity she has grown to womanhood, and for months it has
been plainly evident that she was striving in every way to gain and hold
the attention of Erastus Pronando. He lingered here almost all summer,
as you will remember; Tita followed him everywhere. Miss Hinsdale,
absor