"I saw her once in Philadelphia. Mr. Van Ariens told me about her. She is the friend of his sister the Marquise de Tounnerre." "How did Mr. Van Ariens know of such an event?" "I suppose the Marquise told him of it." "I am interested. Is she pretty? Who, and what is her father? Did she lose her lover through the mistake?" "You are more interested in this American girl, than in me. I think you might ask a little concerning my love affair with Captain Seabright." "I always ask you about Mr. Van Ariens. A girl cannot have two lovers," "But if one is gone away?" "Then he has gone away; and that is the end of him. He must not trouble the one who has come to stay, eh, Mary?" "You are right, Annie. But one's first lover has always a charm above reason; and Willie Seabright was once very dear to me." "I am sorry for that unfortunate American girl." "So am I. She is a great beauty. Her name is Cornelia Moran; and her father is a famous physician in New York." "And this beauty had two lovers?" "Yes; an Englishman of noble birth; and an American. They both loved her, and she loved the Englishman. They must have both asked her hand on the same day, and she must have answered both letters in the same hour; and the letter she intended for the man she loved, went to the man she did not love. Presumably, the man she loved got the refusal she intended for the other, for he never sought her society again; and Mr. Van Ariens told me she nearly died in consequence. I know not as to this part of the story; when I saw her in Philadelphia, she had no more of fragility than gave delicacy to all her charms." "And what became of the two lovers, Mary?" "The Englishman went back to England; and the American found another girl more kind to him." "I wonder what made Mr. Van Ariens tell you this story?" "He talked much of his sister, and this young lady was her chief friend and confidante." "When did it happen?" "A few days after his sister's marriage." "Then the Marquise could not know of it; and so she could not have told her brother. However in the world could he have found out the mistake? Do you think the girl herself found it out?" "That is inconceivable," answered Mary. "She would have written to her lover and explained the affair." "Certainly. It is a very singular incident. I want to think it over--how--did--Mr. Van Ariens--find--it--out, I wonder!" "Perhaps the rejected lover confided in him." "But why did not the rejected lover send the letter he received--and which he must have known he had no right to retain--to Miss Moran, or to the Englishman for whom it was intended? A man who could keep a letter like that, must have some envious sneaking devil in his body. A bad man, Mary, a bad man--the air must be unclean in any room he comes into." "Why Annie! How angry you are. Let us drop the subject. I really do want to tell you something about Willie Seabright."