rying to take you away from me again?"

"No, he's not. Read it aloud."

Sylvia read:--

"'RITZ HOTEL, PARIS.

"'My dear Woodville,--In the short time since I had the pleasure of
seeing you, certain changes have come over my views on many
subjects; my future is likely to be entirely different from what I
had supposed, and I felt impelled to let you know, before any one
else, of the unexpected happiness that is about to dawn for me.'

"Oh, Frank, how long-winded and flowery!"

"Never mind that. It's his style always when he's sentimental. Do go on
reading."

Sylvia went on. "'I was greatly disappointed at first to know you were
unwilling to go to Athens. Perhaps, however, it is better as it is.
Briefly, I have found in la _ville lumiere_ what I had longed for and
despaired of--a reciprocal affection--that of a young and innocent
girl--'"

"Sylvia, don't waste time. Go on!"

"'My heart'"--Sylvia continued to read--"'is filled with joy; but I will
not take up all my letter to you with ecstatic rhapsodies; nor will I
indulge myself by referring to her beauty, her charm, her Madonna-like
face and sylph-like form. Her extraordinary affection for me (I speak
with all humility)--tempered as it naturally was by the modesty of her
age (she is barely seventeen)--was, I think, what first drew me towards
her. We are to be married in May. You know that the sorrow of my life
was that I had never been loved for myself. I have been called a
successful man, but in my own heart I know that this is the only real
success I have ever had during fifty-five years. It is certainly a great
pleasure to think, as I do, that I shall be able to give my Gabrielle
all (humanly speaking) that she can desire....'"

"Will you stop laughing? You _must_ get through the preliminaries,
Sylvia!"

"It seems all preliminaries," murmured Sylvia.

"'But, in my happiness, your troubles are not forgotten: and I hope now
to be able to remove them in all essentials.

"'First, let me ask you to remember me to Miss Sylvia, and to tell her
that with the deepest respect I now formally relinquish all hopes of her
hand.'

"Very kind of him! He seems to claim some merit for not wanting to marry
us both," Sylvia cried.

"'No doubt you remember my telling you of a post, similar to that
which I proposed for you in the bank at Athens, and that might be
vacant soon, in London. Since