ne which he especially intrusted to
me by a secret paper, in the hope that, by delicate and judicious
management, I might be able to persuade the person in whose interest
it was bequeathed to accept. It was, indeed, a task of no common
difficulty, the legatee being the widow of a man who had, by my uncle's
cruelty, been driven to destroy himself. It is a long story, which I
cannot now enter upon; enough that I say it had been a trial of strength
between two very vindictive unyielding men which should crush the
other, and my uncle, being the richer,--and not from any other
reason,--conquered.

"The victory was a very barren one. It imbittered every hour of his
life after, and the only reparation in his power, he attempted on his
death-bed, which was to settle an annuity on the family of the man
he had ruined. I found out at once where they lived, and set about
effecting this delicate charge. I will not linger over my failure; but
it was complete. The family was in actual distress, but nothing would
induce them to listen to the project of assistance; and, in fact, their
indignation compelled me to retire from the attempt in despair. My
sister did her utmost in the cause, but equally in vain, and we prepared
to leave the place, much depressed and cast down by our failure. It
was on the last evening of our stay at the inn of the little village,
a townsman of the place, whom I had employed to aid my attempt by his
personal influence with the family, asked to see me and speak with me in
private.

"He appeared to labor under considerable agitation, and opened
our interview by bespeaking my secrecy as to what he was about to
communicate. It was to this purport: A friend of his own, engaged in the
Baltic trade, had just declared to him that he had seen W., the person
I allude to, alive and well, walking on the quay at Riga, that he traced
him to his lodging; but, on inquiring for him the next day, he was not
to be found, and it was then ascertained that he had left the city. W.
was, it would seem, a man easily recognized, and the other declared that
there could not be the slightest doubt of his identity. The question was
a grave one how to act, since the assurance company with which his life
was insured were actually engaged in discussing the propriety of some
compromise by paying to the family a moiety of the policy, and a variety
of points arose out of this contingency; for while it would have been
a great cruelty to have co