owing day. This person had ever been
the unchanging friend of Alonzo; he had heard of the misfortunes of his
family, and he deeply sympathized in his distress. He had lately married
and settled in life: his name was Vincent.

When Alonzo arrived at the house of his friend, he was received with the
same disinterested ardour he ever had been in the day of his most
unbounded prosperity.--After being seated, Vincent told him that the
occasion of his sending for him was to propose the adoption of certain
measures which he doubted not might be considered highly beneficial as
it respected his future peace and happiness. "Your family misfortunes,
continued Vincent, have reached the ears of Melissa's father. I know the
old gentleman too well to believe he will consent to receive you as his
son-in-law, under your present embarrassments. Money is the god to which
he implicitly bows. The case is difficult, but not insurmountable. You
must first see Melissa; she is now in the next room. I will introduce
you in; converse with her, after which I will lay my plan before you."

* * * * *

Alonzo entered the room; Melissa was sitting by a window which looked
into a pleasant garden, and over verdant meadows whose tall grass waved
to the evening breeze. Farther on, low vallies spread their umbrageous
thickets, where the dusky shadows of night had begun to assemble.

On high hills beyond, the tops of lofty forests, majestically moved by
the billowy gales, caught the sun's last ray. Fleecy summer clouds
hovered around the verge of the western horizon, spangled with silvery
tints or fringed with the gold of evening.

A mournfully murmuring rivulet purled at a little distance from the
garden, on the borders of a small grove, from whence the American wild
dove wafted her sympathetic moaning to the ear of Melissa. She sat
leaning on a small table by the window, which was thrown up. Her
attention was fixed. She did not perceive Vincent and Alonzo as they
entered. They advanced towards her. She turned, started, and arose. With
a melancholy smile, and tremulous voice, "I supposed, she said, that it
was Mrs. Vincent who was approaching, as she has just left the room."
Her countenance appeared dejected, which, on seeing Alonzo, lighted up
into a languid sprightliness. It was evident she had been weeping.

Vincent retired, and Alonzo and Melissa seated themselves by the window.
"I have broken in upon your solitude,