"Oh! my friend, I feel I have merited your contempt and scorn for having given way thus to the promptings of my evil nature. I fancy I see you start and shrink back whilst reading these lines, and saying to yourself, 'Can Pauline have been guilty of so black a crime?' No wonder you shrink back in horror and loathing; yet, loathe me as you will, you cannot loathe me as much as I loathe myself. I thought revenge would be sweet, but now the bitterness of remorse has filled my heart. The remembrance of my crime is intolerable to me; it haunts me night and day. I feel that nothing short of the sacrifice of my whole life can do aught towards atoning for so black a deed. "Yes, my friend, many and bitter have been the tears of remorse that I have shed, very bitter the reproaches I have launched against myself. But to what purpose all this? What should your young and innocent soul know of the torments I bear within? Enough, my resolution is fixed never to be changed. "Start not, friend, when I tell you that I have renounced the world and its vanities, and intend to retire into a convent, there to atone by a lifetime of fasting and prayer for the fell crime that harrows my soul. I was once vain enough to dream of becoming your bride, but now I am called upon to be the bride of Heaven. Shortly after you receive this I shall have taken the veil. Think no more of one unworthy to find a place in your thoughts. Forgive me if you can. Farewell, yours, Pauline." "These, gentlemen, are the words of her letter, as well as I can recollect. The letter bears no date or address, but it bore the post-mark, 'Brussels.' As the letter did not appear to crave an answer, I wrote none and thus the matter dropped." "Poor girl!" broke in Parnassus, with a sigh; "her crime was great, no doubt; but done in the very heat of passion; and then, her repentance is extremely touching." "Yes," said Mr. Blackdeed, "she winds up in a manner quite dramatic." The members of the club then expressed, severally, their approbation of the barber's narrative, upon which the young man bowed and scraped, and hoped he should be able to satisfy the honourable members as well on a future occasion, if his services should be required, and then quitted the inn. In the afternoon our members attended divine service, to a man; and, after a stroll in the wood, returned home in the evening, which they spent in their usual jovial manner. * * * * * Transcriber's note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Although not present in the original publication, a list of contents has been provided for the reader's convenience.