gentleman--requested his friend to inform him who the lady was that he
escorted to church.

"Well, my dear friend," said Horace, "as you appear so desirous to
know I will tell you. I met that lady some seven years ago at Saratoga
Springs. If she is now beautiful she was ten times so then, and I
endeavored to gain her affections. She was, however, engaged to
another young man of this city, and on my offering her my hand in
marriage, declined it on that ground. I followed her here with the
intention of supplanting her lover in her affections, but it was of no
avail; they were married, and the only satisfaction I could find was
to ruin her father, which I did, and he died shortly after without a
dollar to his name."

"So she is married?" interrupted his companion.

"Yes, and has two children," replied Horace.

"Where is her husband?"

"He left for Virginia some time ago, where I sincerely trust he will
get a bullet through his heart," was the very charitable rejoinder.

"What! do you desire to marry his widow?" asked his friend.

"No, indeed," he replied; "but you see they are not in very good
circumstances, and if he were once dead she would be compelled to work
for a living, as they have no relatives in this State, and only a few
in Baltimore. To gain my object, I should pretend that I desired to
befriend her--send the two children to some nurse, and then have her