“On my arrival here two hours ago, I was surprised and embarrassed by hearing that you and _your bride_ are staying in the house. Had I been aware of this fact, I need scarcely tell you I would have delayed making my appearance until your visit should have ended. But, although I knew you had married a connection of Mrs. Crane, such a probability never occurred to me. However, it was not likely that, mixing in the same grade of society, we should pass through life without ever again encountering each other; and I am still weak enough to dread our first meeting, and to wish it over. I know your generous nature, and feel the utmost confidence that the past will remain a secret between us. It will, perhaps, be better--easier for us both, not to pretend to meet as strangers. An accidental travelling acquaintance will sufficiently account for our knowing the same places, people, &c. For your own sake, as well as mine. “I implore you to be careful--I have never forgotten your advice, and have striven to act upon it--but mine is a rebellious nature. Destroy this note as soon as you have read it. “Arabella.” With stern compressed lips and knitted brow, Harry perused this mysterious epistle, and when he had finished it, crushed it in his hand and threw it on the fire with a gesture of impatience. “Your letter does not seem to please you,” observed Alice; “does it come from a dun, or is there a screw loose (don’t I get on with my slang!) in the stable or the kennel?” Absorbed in thought, Harry made her no reply, until, surprised and slightly annoyed at his silence, she resumed-- “Has the mysterious epistle stricken you dumb, or have we become so thoroughly matrimonial, that you don’t consider it worth while to answer your wife when she asks you a question?” “Eh! what? I beg your pardon, dear, the letter? no it was not from a dun. I never was preyed upon by those vampires, thank Heaven; ‘out of debt, out of danger,’ has always been my motto,” replied Coverdale, rousing from his reverie. “If it was not from a dun, whom was it from then?” continued Alice, pertinaciously. “You are singularly curious all of a sudden,” rejoined Harry; “all I shall tell you about the matter is that the note referred to a disagreeable affair which happened three or four years ago, and which I had hoped was entirely passed and forgotten.” “And having raised my curiosity thus, do you actually mean to say that you will not gratify it farther?” inquired Alice. “As you can have no good reason for asking, and as I have a very good and sufficient one for keeping my own counsel, I am afraid I must leave you in ignorance,” was Harry’s tantalizing reply.