ld with the name of the other
principal, who signs himself Milo M'Caskey, Lieut.-Col. in the service
of Naples, Count, and Commander of various orders.' She adds," continued
Maitland, in a shaken voice, and an effort, but yet a poor one, to
smile,--"she adds: 'I own I am sorry for him. All his great qualities
and cultivation seemed to suit and dignify station; but now that I know
his condition to have been a mere assumption, the man himself and his
talents are only a mockery,--only a mockery!' Hard words these, Carlo,
very hard words!

"And then she says: 'If I had only known him as a passing acquaintance,
and thought of him with the same indifference one bestows on
such,-perhaps I would not now insist so peremptorily as I do on our
ceasing to know him; but I will own to you, Mark, that he did interest
me greatly. He had, or seemed to have,'--this, that, and t' other," said
he, with an ill-tempered haste, and went on. "'But now, as he stands
before me, with a borrowed name and a mock rank--' There is half a page
more of the same trash; for this gentle lady is a mistress of fierce
words, and not over-merciful, and she ends thus: 'I think, if you are
adroit, you can show him, in declining his proffered civility, that we
had strong reasons for our refusal, and that it would be unpleasant to
renew our former acquaintance.' In fact, Carlo, she means to cut me.
This woman, whose hand I had held in mine while I declared my love, and
who, while she listened to me, showed no touch of displeasure, affects
now to resent the accident of my birth, and treat me as an impostor!
I am half sorry that letter has not reached its destination; ay, and,
strange as you will think it, I am more than half tempted to write and
tell her that I have read it The story of the stolen despatch will soon
be a newspaper scandal, and it would impart marvellous interest to her
reading it when she heard that her own 'private and confidential' was
captured in the same net."

"You could not own to such an act, Maitland."

"No. If it should not lead to something further; but I do yearn to repay
her. She is a haughty adversary, and well worth a vengeance."

"What becomes of your fine maxim, 'Never quarrel with a woman,'
Maitland?"

"When I uttered it, I had never loved one," muttered he; and they walked
on now in silence.

Almost within earshot--so close, indeed, that had they not been
conversing in Italian, some of their words must have been overheard