y the matter was taken so seriously by the young
lady. It was only a joke."

"Yes. That was all; and she ought to have known it."

On the next day, Fisher, who had spent a restless night, called to ask
for Clara as early as he could do so with propriety.

"She wishes you to excuse her," said the servant, who had taken up his
name to the young lady.

"Is she not well?" asked Fisher.

"She has not been out of her room this morning. I don't think she is
very well."

The young man retired with a troubled feeling at his heart. In the
evening he called again; but Clara sent him word, as she had done in
the morning, that she wished to be excused.

In the mean time, the young lady was a prey to the most distressing
doubts. What she had heard, vague as it was, fell like ice upon her
heart. She had no reason to question what had been said, for it was, as
far as appeared to her, the mere expression of a fact made in
confidence by friend to friend without there being an object in view.
If any one had come to her and talked to her after that manner, she
would have rejected the allegations indignantly, and confidently
pronounced them false. But they had met her in a shape so unexpected,
and with so much seeming truth, that she was left no alternative but to
believe.

Fisher called a third time; but still Clara declined seeing him. On the
day after this last attempt, he received a note from her in these, to
him, strange words:--

"DEAR SIR:--Since I last met you, I have become satisfied that a
marriage between us cannot prove a happy one. This conclusion is far
more painful to me than it can possibly be to you. You, I trust, will
soon be able to feel coldly towards her whose fickleness, as you will
call it, so soon led her to change her mind; but a life-shadow is upon
my heart. If you can forget me, do so, in justice to yourself. As for
me, I feel that--but why should say this? Charles, do not seek to
change the resolution I have taken, for you cannot; do not ask for
explanations, for I can give none. May you be happier than I can ever
be! Farewell.

"CLARA."

"Madness!" exclaimed Charles Fisher, as he crumpled this letter in his
hand. "Is there no faith in woman?"

He sought no explanation; he made no effort to change her resolution;
he merely returned this brief answer--

"Clara, you are free."

It was quickly known among the circle of their friends that the
engagement between Fisher and Clara had been broken off