"No, Sir, I don't think I have." "Well, it is rather odd, but really nobody seems to hare heard of Rugby, and Trim will have it that it is an imaginary place altogether; but I tell him this is a point on which I must differ from him, as I have actually seen Rugby Well, Rugby, as I was saying, is an extremely picturesque village, almost too picturesque, rising on the brow of a steep hill, with an old church and very quaint parsonage; then there's a splendid torrent, that inundates the place twice a year, but the people are used to it and don't mind it, so it makes no difference, you know." "But is it not rather unpleasant, Sir?" "Well, perhaps it is," quietly replied Morton Smalley; then added with a sigh, "but life has greater trials; every one has his or her trial, my dear." "Yes," I answered, "Miss O'Reilly can't let her house; it is such a pity, is it not?" "Have her tenants left?" asked Mr. Smalley, a little troubled. "Miss Russell has given notice; the bill is up, did you not see it?" "I did not look," he replied in a low tone; then he again said-- "Has Miss Russell left?" "Her furniture is still there; but she is always at Hastings." There was a pause; but Mr. Smalley made an effort and asked-- "Is her niece with her?" "I don't know, Sir." "Don't you?" "Oh no! we don't know anything more about Miss Miriam, since she is not to marry Cornelius." Mr. Smalley turned pale and red, and pale again; but he never put a question to me. He constrained himself to talk of the weather, of what a fine day it was (the rain was drizzling), of how happy it made him to hear Cornelius was so successful (we had never said a word about his success); then he left off at once, rose and bade me good-bye, to my infinite relief, for I was conscious of having committed an indiscretion, and not the first either. Within the course of the same month, as we sat at breakfast, Kate, who was reading the newspaper, suddenly uttered an exclamation which she as hastily checked. Cornelius took the paper from her hand, glanced over it, and read aloud very calmly-- "On the twelfth instant, at St. George's, Hanover Square, the Rev. Morton Smalley, of Rugby, to Miriam Russell, eldest daughter of the late Thomas Russell, Esq., of Southwell, Norfolk." "Smalley deserved a better wife," said Cornelius; and he handed back the paper to Kate, without betraying the least sign of emotion. It was thus we learned how utterly dead Miriam was in his heart.