that
she is of Italian birth, though she tells me that she has never crossed
the Atlantic."

"She is evidently captivated with their people, or perhaps I may more
properly say, with the only person she has ever met of that nation,"
said Mrs. Santon, with a mysterious manner.

"To what or whom do you refer?" asked Delwood, in an altered tone of
voice.

"Mr. Delwood, I feel that it is my duty to inform you of a matter, which
has been a source of no little uneasiness, not only to myself, but to
every member of my family; and as you have shown a manifest interest in
Miss Grosvenor, it is not well that you should remain in ignorance of
what so deeply concerns your welfare."

"Speak! what can it be?" asked Delwood, pale with emotion.

"Do not allow yourself to be thus moved, I pray you; but what I have to
say is, that three months ago, we gave the Signor notice that we should
require his services no longer, as we had reason to believe his visits
were becoming something more than mere professional calls, and to our
great consternation, we found that Miss Grosvenor was not entirely
indifferent to his marked attentions. I was the last to believe that
Miss Grosvenor could so lose her self-respect and standing, as to look
upon a poor professor, who gains his bread by his own exertions, as a
favored competitor for her hand, and, it was not until I saw with my own
eyes, that I could credit what I had heard. I was satisfied in time,
that his rapt admiration as he gazed upon her, was something more than
enthusiasm that she had excelled even his most ardent expectations; and
the expression of her beautiful face, as she concluded, might have been
the envy of a greater than the Signor. We dismissed the Signor, but he
still continued his visits, under the plea that it was his custom to
give a few additional lessons at the close of a course, and if he might
be allowed, he should consider it a valuable acquisition to his own
musical powers, to continue for a time his exercises under Miss
Grosvenor's superior talent."

As Mrs. Santon paused, Delwood, in a state of frenzy, exclaimed,--

"It cannot be! I will never believe that she is false to me, even though
she should declare to me with her own lips, that another's claims upon
her affections were paramount to my own! Excuse me, madam, but I think
there must be some dreadful misunderstanding in regard to the facts
which you have stated. No! I would scorn myself if I had a doubt of he