Miss Conyers then devoted all her time and attention to making preparations for a sea voyage that was to last several months. The missionaries were to sail on the first of October, in the great East Indiaman, _Sultana_, bound from Boston to Calcutta; but their destination was Cambodia. When her preparations were completed, Britomarte wrote to her friend Erminie, informing her of all the particulars of the projected mission, and asking her for the last news of their own fellow-graduates. Quickly as the post could return, Miss Conyers received an answer from the affectionate girl. And now that the missionary measure seemed irrevocable, Erminie did not distress her friend by any vain lamentations over her own loss. Little womanlike, she praised, glorified, and rejoiced over her friend, and bade her Godspeed. She wrote that her brother Justin had just been ordained a minister of the Gospel, and that he was to leave them soon for distant duty; but she did not say where he was going. “So, then, our paths diverge forever, thank Heaven!” exclaimed the man-hater, as she read this part of the letter, but, indeed, her heaving bosom, and quivering lips, and tearful eyes did not look very much like thankfulness. Erminie farther stated that Colonel Eastworth had taken apartments at a first-class hotel in the city, with the intention of passing the ensuing winter there. Of their late classmates, Erminie wrote: “There is the mischief to play down in Henrico. It seems Vittorio Corsoni sued for the hand of Alberta Goldsborough, which was indignantly refused him by her father. Next he was refused admittance to the house by her mother; after which Miss Goldsborough, chancing to meet her lover in the streets of Richmond, coolly informed him that if they could not see each other in her own home, they could do so at the houses of their mutual friends, and at the same time announced that she should spend that evening with her schoolmate, Eleanora Lee. That evening you may be sure that the Signior Vittorio lounged into Judge Lee’s drawing-room to pay his respects to a former patron. “In this manner they contrived to meet everywhere where they were both acquainted, until at last, oh, Britomarte, they eloped! You don’t know how shocked I was to hear it, and how ashamed I am to have to tell you! But you asked me for news, and I will keep back nothing. “They made for the nearest point to cross into Maryland, where they could be legally married, notwithstanding she was under age. But Mr. Goldsborough, with two of her uncles, pursued and overtook them before they had crossed the boundary and seized both, as he had a right to do. “Vittorio, they say, was dreadfully agitated, and even drew his sword-cane in defense of his ladylove. But Alberta was as cool as ever, and bade him put up his sword and yield for the time being; for that, though their marriage was delayed, it was not prevented.