Full strange are the tales which that dark host shall bear To palace and cot on the morrow; Oh welcome, thrice welcome, to many a heart! To many a bearer of sorrow; It shall go like the wild and wandering air, For life and its changes are impressed there. _Boston, August, 1843._ MODUS. CÀ ET LÀ. BY THE FLANEUR. WHAT was Mr. Liner's plan? We will give it shortly, and hurry to a conclusion. He packed up his daughter and despatched her to Boston by Harnden's Express, in the month of September, carefully directed to a maternal uncle who resided there. With her went a letter explaining his peculiar situation. How Mrs. Liner and himself were afraid that their daughter, although now a '_dame charmante de vingt six ans moins un mois_,' might become a middle-aged, ay, a very middle-aged single lady; how all her friends had married about her, even to Frederica Frizzle, who, like the Colossus of Rhodes, was very tall and very brazen; how Shuffleshanks had loved and died, leaving no sign; how the young man from Tobolsk had offered himself and been refused, and how the _sparks_ no longer _flew up_ when she appeared. That, in short, he despaired of settling her at home, although she was rich; as the New-Yorkers have an invincible aversion to any thing that has been long on hand; and Catharine, though certainly not _passée_ was as certainly _passante_. He therefore requested the uncle to introduce her in Boston as a widow; the relict of a rich planter who died in New-Orleans of the yellow fever, leaving his wife the fee simple of all his slaves and half-breeds. To which the uncle willingly consented, as he was promised a handsome percentage if he succeeded; and Catharine herself was nothing loth, for she yearned to get married; and deceit, as we will prove one of these days, is the ground-work of the female character. So Miss Liner was shipped; as old fashioned goods often are, in newer boxes. The bill of lading was marked thus: [Illustration: =1 PACKAGE.= / \ L \ / DEMOISELLE À MARIER.] Mr. Liner was confident that she would arrive safe, as her case was the very antipodes of the vinous accident alluded to in scripture. Here ends the authentic history of Miss Liner. All else is either fabulous or deeply tinged with mythology. But it is at least certain that her widowhood allowed her to be so much more lively and fascinating, and explained so satisfactorily why she was single at her age; and her fortune came in so strongly and opportunely to urge on admirers, that in less than a month she was engaged, and in less than two, married. Our uncle pocketed his commission and kept his secret.