ved. It was brief and mysterious; you shall hear the
whole of it:

"I thank you. Your letter is a sacred confidence which I
pray you never to regret. Your nature is sound and good. You
ask no more than is reasonable, and I have no real right to
refuse. In the one respect which I have hinted, _I_ may have
been unskilful or too narrowly cautious: I must have the
certainty of this. Therefore, as a generous favor, give me
six months more! At the end of that time I will write to you
again. Have patience with these brief lines: another word
might be a word too much."

You notice the change in her tone? The letter gave me the strongest
impression of a new, warm, almost anxious interest on her part. My
fancies, as first at Wampsocket, began to play all sorts of singular
pranks: sometimes she was rich and of an old family, sometimes
moderately poor and obscure, but always the same calm, reposeful face
and clear gray eyes. I ceased looking for her in society, quite sure
that I should not find her, and nursed a wild expectation of suddenly
meeting her, face to face, in the most unlikely places and
under startling circumstances. However, the end of it all was
patience--patience for six months.

There's not much more to tell; but this last letter is hard for me to
read. It came punctually, to a day. I knew it would, and at the last I
began to dread the time, as if a heavy note were falling due, and I had
no funds to meet it. My head was in a whirl when I broke the seal. The
fact in it stared at me blankly, at once, but it was a long time before
the words and sentences became intelligible.

"The stipulated time has come, and our hidden romance is at
an end. Had I taken this resolution a year ago, it would
have saved me many vain hopes, and you, perhaps, a little
uncertainty. Forgive me, first, if you can, and then hear
the explanation!

"You wished for a personal interview: _you have had, not
one, but many_. We have met, in society, talked face to
face, discussed the weather, the opera, toilettes, Queechy,
Aurora Floyd, Long Branch, and Newport, and exchanged a
weary amount of fashionable gossip; and you never guessed
that I was governed by any deeper interest! I have purposely
uttered ridiculous platitudes, and you were as smilingly
courteous as if you enjoyed them: I have let fall remarks
whose hollowness and s