"If you were other than you are, this letter would not be written; I should not dare to plead my cause with you; but I know you so well--I know how kind and good you are--and so I venture to hope for your forgiveness. I am very wicked, grandpapa; I am going away without your consent to be married. He--my husband that is to be--is named Robert Gregory. He has told me frankly that men do not speak well of him, and that when he was young he was wild and bad. He tells me so, and I must believe him; but he must have been very different to what he is now--for now I know him to be good and noble. I have known him long--I own it with shame that I have never told you before, and many tears the concealment has cost me; but, oh, grandpapa, had I told you, you would have sent him away, and I should have lost him. He and you are all I have in the world; let me keep you both. He showed me kindness when all the world, except you--my kindest and best of friends--turned their backs upon me, and I could not give him up. While I write now, my eyes are full of tears, and my heart bleeds to think of the pain this will give you, after all your goodness to me. Oh, forgive me. Do for my sake, dear, dear grandpapa, see him and judge for yourself. I only ask this, and then I know you will forgive him and me. Write soon to me--only one word--say you forgive me, and let me be your little Sophy once more. I shall not love you the less for loving him, and much as I love him, without your forgiveness my life will indeed be miserable. "Write soon, grandpapa--write soon, and say you forgive me, and that I shall again be your own-- "SOPHY." Presently the Misses Harmer--who always breakfasted much earlier together, and then retired to a dressing-room they had fitted up as a small oratory--were surprised at loud talking, and confusion in the house. In a short time their own maid knocked at the door, and then came in with a face full of excitement, to say that Miss Sophy had not slept in her bed, and that they had searched the whole house, and found no signs of her. "Does my brother know?" Miss Harmer asked, after hearing the whole story very quietly to the end. "I can't say, ma'am; there was a letter on Miss Sophy's table, which Mary took into Mr. Harmer, in the library, when she first found it, and he has not come out since." The Misses Harmer, with their usual deliberate walk, went down stairs, and then into the library.