s to the post-office, Stockholm."

I obeyed the orders given to me except that relating to my mistress. The
doctor had been sent for, and was still in the house. I consulted him
upon the propriety of my delivering the message. He positively forbade
me to do so that night, and told me to give him the slip of paper, and
leave it to his discretion to show it to her or not the next morning.

The messenger had hardly been gone an hour when Mr. Meeke's housekeeper
came to the Hall with a roll of music for my mistress. I told the woman
of my master's sudden departure, and of the doctor being in the house.
This news brought Mr. Meeke himself to the Hall in a great flutter.

I felt so angry with him for being the cause--innocent as he might
be--of the shocking scene which had taken place, that I exceeded
the bounds of my duty, and told him the whole truth. The poor, weak,
wavering, childish creature flushed up red in the face, then turned as
pale as ashes, and dropped into one of the hall chairs crying--literally
crying fit to break his heart. "Oh, William," says he, wringing his
little frail, trembling white hands as helpless as a baby, "oh, William,
what am I to do?"

"As you ask me that question, sir," says I, "you will excuse me, I hope,
if, being a servant, I plainly speak my mind notwithstanding. I know
my station well enough to be aware that, strictly speaking, I have done
wrong, and far exceeded my duty, in telling you as much as I have
told you already; but I would go through fire and water, sir," says I,
feeling my own eyes getting moist, "for my mistress's sake. She has no
relation here who can speak to you; and it is even better that a servant
like me should risk being guilty of an impertinence, than that dreadful
and lasting mischief should arise from the right remedy not being
applied at the right time. This is what I should do, sir, in your place.
Saving your presence, I should leave off crying; and go back home and
write to Mr. James Smith, saying that I would not, as a clergyman, give
him railing for railing, but would prove how unworthily he had suspected
me by ceasing to visit at the Hall from this time forth, rather than
be a cause of dissension between man and wife. If you will put that into
proper language, sir, and will have the letter ready for me in half an
hour's time, I will call for it on the fastest horse in our stables,
and, at my own risk, will give it to my master before he sails
to-night. I ha