y,' an excellent institution, in high favor at
the South. Indeed I may add, that it never has offended against its
social--"

Sister Slocum hesitates. Social slavery will not sound just right, she
says to her herself. She must have a term more musical, and less grating
to the ear. A smile flashes across her countenance, her gold-framed
eye-glasses vibrate in her fingers: "Well! I was going to say, their
social arrangements," she pursues.

The assembly is suddenly thrown into a fit of excitement. Lady Swiggs is
seen trembling from head to foot, her yellow complexion changing to pale
white, her features contorting as with pain, and her hand clutching at
her pocket. "O heavens!" she sighs, "all is gone, gone, gone: how vain
and uncertain are the things here below." She drops, fainting, into the
arms of Sister Slocum, who has overset the wise man in the spectacles,
in her haste to catch the prostrate form. On a bench the august body is
laid. Fans, water, camphor, hartshorn, and numerous other restoratives
are brought into use. Persons get in each other's way, run every way but
the right way, causing, as is common in such cases, very unnecessary
alarm. The stately representative of the great Swiggs family lies
motionless. Like the last of our chivalry, she has nothing left her but
a name.

A dash or two of cold water, and the application of a little hartshorn,
and that sympathy so necessary to the fainting of distinguished
people--proves all-efficient. A slight heaving of the bosom is detected,
the hands--they have been well chaffed--quiver and move slowly, her face
resumes its color. She opens her eyes, lays her hand solicitously on
Sister Slocum's arm: "It must be the will of Heaven," she lisps,
motioning her head, regretfully; "it cannot now be undone--"

"Sister! sister! sister!" interrupts Sister Slocum, grasping her hand,
and looking inquiringly in the face of the recovering woman, "is it an
affection of the heart?--where is the pain?--what has befallen you? We
are all so sorry!"

"It was there, there, there! But it is gone now." Regaining her
consciousness, she lays her hand nervously upon her pocket, and pursues:
"Oh! yes, sister, it was there when I entered that vile place, as you
call it. What am I to do? The loss of the money does not so much trouble
my mind. Oh! dear, no. It is the thought of going home deprived of the
means of aiding these noble institutions."

Had Lady Swiggs inquired into the character