"But, my dear lady, I read the letter. Your husband brought it to me as soon as it reached him. You remained at San Francisco, very ill after Nash's departure, and you got no better, and died at last of low fever." She shook her head. "I was very poorly indeed when Nash left, but I grew better shortly. I had no low fever, and I certainly did not die." "Then why did Munn write it?" "He did not write it. He could not have written it. I am quite certain of that. He and his wife are my very good and dear friends, and most estimable people." "The letter certainly came to your husband," persisted the Squire. "I read it with my own eyes. It was dated San Francisco, and signed Francis Munn." "Then it was a forgery. But why any one should have written it, or troubled themselves about me and my husband at all, I cannot imagine." "And then, Nash--Nash---- Good gracious, what a complication!" cried the Squire, breaking off what he meant to say, as the thought of Charlotte Nave crossed his mind. "I know," she quietly put in: "Nash has married again." It was a complication, and no mistake, all things considered. The Squire rubbed up his hair and deliberated, and then bethought himself that it might be as well to keep the servants out of the room. So I went to tell old Thomas that the master was particularly engaged with a friend, and no one was to come in unless rung for. Then I ran upstairs to whisper the news to the mother--and it pretty nearly sent her into a fit of hysterics. Charlotte Caromel was entering on her history to the Squire when I got back. "Yes," she said, "I and my husband went to California, having found little luck in America. Nash made one or two ventures there also, but nothing seemed to succeed; not as well even as it did in America, and he resolved to go back there, and try at something or other again. He sailed for New York, leaving me in San Francisco with Francis Munn and his wife; for I had been ill, and was not strong enough for the tedious voyage. The Munns kept a dry-goods store at San Francisco, and----" "A dry-goods store!" interrupted the Squire.