"Why!" she ejaculated. "How near I came to betraying confidence,--and without meaning to do it, either! Oh, how glad I am you did not let me go on so thoughtlessly! I should have been so sorry for it afterwards! I know Walter will tell you himself, some day,--but I have no business to do it, especially as he did not voluntarily make me his confidante; I found out the affair by accident, and he bound me to secresy. Oh, I thank you for stopping me when I was forgetting everything in my eager curiosity! And this letter, too, I offered to show you! How strangely indiscreet!" "Perhaps I read it while you were gone," said Kate, in a low voice. "No, you didn't, Kate! You can't make me believe that of you! I know you too well!" "Indeed!" said Kate, blushing violently; "I can tell you, I came very near it." "'A miss is as good as a mile,' Lina. And I know you were far enough from anything so mean." "I was so near as to have my hand upon your letter, Alice dear. One feather's weight more stress of temptation, and I should have fallen." "Pure nonsense! Isn't it, Charles?" "Yes. Kate, you need not flatter yourself that you have universal ability, clever as you are. In anything dishonorable you are a perfect incapable, and that is all you have proved this morning." V. New York; July. I was too comfortable, Mary! Such peace could not last, any more than a soft Indian-summer can put off relentless winter. Oh, for those sweet June days when I had my couch wheeled to the deepest shade of the grove, and lay there from morning until evening, with the green foliage to curtain me,--the clover-scented wind to play about my hair, and touch my temples with softest, coolest fingers,--the rushing brook to sing me to sleep,--the very little blossoms to be obsequious in dancing motion, to please my eye,--and the holy hush of Nature to tranquillize my soul! I had brought myself, by what I thought the most Christian effort, to be content with my altered lot. I gave up ambition, active usefulness, fireside, and family. I tried but for one thing,--peace. I had nearly attained it, when there comes an impertinent officer of fate, known as Dr. G., and he peremptorily orders me out of my gentle bliss. I am sinking into apathy, forsooth! The warm weather is prostrating me! I must be stirred to activity by torture, like the fainting wretch on the rack! I am commanded to travel! I, who cannot bear the grating of my slow-moving wheels over the smooth gravel-walk, without compressed lips and corrugated brow! The Doctor ordained it; Kate executed it. I am no longer my own master; and so here I am in New York, resting for a day, on my way to some retired springs in the Green Mountains, where the water is medicinal, the air cool and bracing, the scenery transcendent, and the visitors few.