this entered into a discursive kind of narrative of
Cashel's intimacy with the Kennyfeck family, with whom he had been for a
time domesticated; and after a mass of plausible generalities, wound
up by an imputed charge that he had won the affections of the younger
daughter, who, with the consent of her parents, was to become his wife.

"It will not seem strange to you, gentlemen," said he, "that I have
not called to that table as a witness either the widow or the orphan to
prove these facts, or that I have not subjected their sacred sorrows to
the rude assaults of a cross-examination. You will not think the worse
of me for this reserve, nor shall I ask of you to give my statements the
value of sworn evidence; you will hear them, and decide what value they
possess in leading you to a true understanding of this case.

"I have said, that if a regular pledge and promise of marriage did not
bind the parties, something which is considered equivalent among persons
of honor did exist, and that by their mutual acquaintances they were
regarded as contracted to each other. Mr. Cashel made her splendid and
expensive presents, which had never been accepted save for the relations
between them; he distinguished her on all occasions by exclusive
attention, and among his friends he spoke of his approaching marriage
as a matter fixed and determined on. In this state of things a discovery
took place, which at once served to display the character of the young
gentleman, and to rescue the family from one of the very deepest,
because one of the most irremediable, of all calamities. Information
reached them, accompanied by such circumstances as left no doubt of its
veracity, that this Mr. Cashel had been married already, and that
his wife, a young Spanish lady, was still living, and residing at the
Havannah.

"I leave you to imagine the misery which this sad announcement produced
in that circle, where, until he entered it, happiness had never been
disturbed. It is not necessary that I should dwell upon the distress
this cruel treachery produced: with its consequences alone we have any
concern here; and these were a gradual estrangement,--a refusal, calm
but firm, to receive Mr. Cashel as before; an intimation that they knew
of circumstances which, from delicacy to him, they would never advert to
openly, but which must at once bar all the contemplated relations: and
to this sad, humiliating alternative he submitted!

"To avoid the slanderous