He sat thoughtful for the space of half an hour, and then requested me to accompany him into his private office. When there, he said-- "You inform me that you have again seen Belford, the pirate, and that you have spoken with him. What said he to you? Tell me all--conceal nothing." I again hesitated, and sought to evade the subject. But he added, more decisively--"Speak on--hide nothing--fear nothing." I did tell him all, and he sat and heard me unmoved. When I concluded, he took my hand and said--"It well you have spoken honestly. Listen to me. Charlotte is indeed my daughter. Time has not diminished your affection for each other, which I was afraid was too romantic in its origin to endure. I have put your attachment to each other to severe trials; let it now triumph. Follow me," he added, "and I will conduct you to her." I was blind with happiness, and almost believed that what I heard was but a dream--the fond whispering of an excited brain. I will not describe to you my interview with my Charlotte; I could not--words could not. It was an hour of breathless, of measureless joy. She was more beautiful than ever, and love and joy beamed from her eyes. Our wedding-day came--her father placed her hands in mine, and blessed us. We were leaving the church, when a person in the porch, whose figure was rapt up in a cloak, approached me, and revealing the point of a dagger, whispered--"Remember your bond!" It was Belford, the daring pirate. I kept faith with him, and he received the money. I will not detain you longer with my history, with my Trials and Triumphs. One of the first acts of my Charlotte was to purchase the estate which had been torn from my father, and she presented it to him as his daughter's gift. On retiring from business, I came to reside on it, and built on it this house, which has sheltered you from the storm. "And your name," said the listener, "is Mr Melvin?" "It is," replied the host. "Then startle not," continued the stranger, "when you hear that mine is Belford! I am the son of the pirate. My father died not as he had lived. When upon his deathbed he sent for me, and on leaving me his treasure, which was considerable, he commanded me to repay you the thousand pounds which he so strangely exacted from you. From the day on which he received it, he abandoned his desperate course, and through honest dealings became rich. I have brought you your money, with interest up to the present time." So saying, the stranger placed a pocketbook in the hands of his entertainer, and hastily exclaiming "Farewell!" hurried from the house, and was no more heard of. THE MISER OF NEWABBEY.