ed the notion,
Mrs. Butler,' he said; 'but I was swayed here and swayed there by my
thoughts for the lass, what was best for her body's health, and that
other health that is of far more value; when there came a letter
to me,--it was anonymous,--saying, "Before you suffer your good and
virtuous daughter to go away to a foreign land, just ask the lady that
is to protect her if she still keeps up the habit of moonlight walks in
a garden with a gentleman for her companion, and if that be the sort of
teaching she means to inculcate." Mrs. Trafford came to the door as I
was reading the letter, and I said, "What can you make of such a letter
as this?" and as she read it her cheek grew purple, and she said, "There
is an end of our proposal, Dr. Stewart. Tell your daughter I shall
importune her no more; but this letter I mean to keep: it is in a hand I
know well." And she went back to the carriage without another word; and
tomorrow they leave the Abbey, some say not to come back again.'

"I cried the night through after the doctor went away, for what a world
it is of sin and misery; not that I will believe wrong of her, sweet and
beautiful as she is, but what for was she angry? and why did she show
that this letter could give her such pain? And now, my dear Tony, since
it could be no other than yourself she walked alone with, is it not your
duty to write to the doctor and tell him so? The pure heart fears not
the light, neither are the good of conscience afraid. That she is above
your hope is no reason that she is above your love. That I was your
father's wife may show that Above all, Tony, think that a Gospel
minister should not harbor an evil thought of one who does not deserve
it, and whose mightiest sin is perchance the pride that scorns a
self-defence.

"The poor doctor is greatly afflicted: he is sorry now that he showed
the letter, and Dolly cries over it night and day.

"Is it not a strange thing that Captain Graham's daughters, that never
were used to come here, are calling at the Burnside two or three times a
week?

"Write to me, my dear Tony, and if you think well of what I said, write
to the doctor also, and believe me your ever loving mother,

"Eleanor Butler.

"Dolly Stewart has recovered her health again, but not her spirits.
She rarely comes to see me, but I half suspect that her reason is her
dislike to show me the depression that is weighing over her. So is it,
dear Tony, go where you will; there is no h