used by these cares, acting on a system already excited,
had brought on a fever to Dolly; and it was only on her convalescence,
and while still very weak, that a young man arrived in London and called
to see her, who suddenly seemed to influence all her thoughts and plans
for the future. Sam, it appeared, had gone back to Italy, relying on
Dolly's promise to consult her father and give him a final reply to his
offer of marriage. From the day, however, that this stranger had called,
Dolly seemed to become more and more indifferent to this project,
declaring that her failing health and broken spirits would render her
rather a burden than a benefit, and constantly speaking of home, and
wishing to be back there. "Though I wished," continued the writer, "that
this resolve had come earlier, and that Miss Stewart had returned to
her father before she had thrown discord into a united family, I was not
going to oppose it, even late as it occurred. It was therefore arranged
that she was to go home, ostensibly to recruit and restore herself in
her native air; but I, I need hardly tell you, as firmly determined she
should never pass this threshold again. Matters were in this state, and
Miss Stewart only waiting for a favorable day to begin her journey--an
event I looked for with the more impatience as Mr. M'G. and myself could
never, I knew, resume our terms of affection so long as she remained in
our house,--when one night, between one and two o'clock, we were awoke
by the sound of feet in the garden under our window. I heard them first,
and, creeping to the casement, I saw a figure clamber over the railing
and make straight for the end of the house where Miss Stewart slept,
and immediately begin a sort of low moaning kind of song, evidently
a signal. Miss Stewart's window soon opened, and on this I called Mr.
M'Grader. He had barely time to reach the window, when a man's voice
from below cried out, 'Come down; are you coming?' On this, Mr. M'Gruder
rushed downstairs and into the garden. Two or three loud and angry words
succeeded, and then a violent struggle, in which my husband was twice
knocked down and severely injured. The man, however, made his escape,
but not unrecognized; for your daughter's voice cried out, 'Oh, Tony, I
never thought you 'd do this,' or, 'Why did you do this?' or some words
to that effect.

"The terms on which, through Miss Stewart's behavior, I have latterly
lived with Mr. M'Gruder, gave me no opportunity