"May I ask," said Miss Hetty, with excusable curiosity, "what was the
name of this friend. I begin to feel quite an interest in your little
girl," she added, half apologetically.

"Her name was Henrietta Henderson," said the stranger.

"Why, that is my name," ejaculated Miss Hetty.

"And she was named after you," said the stranger, composedly.

"Why, who in the world are you?" she asked, her heart beginning to beat
unwontedly fast.

"Then you don't remember me?" said he, rising, and looking steadily at
Miss Hetty. "Yet you knew me well in bygone days--none better. At one
time it was thought you would have joined your destiny to mine--"

"Nick Anderson!" said Miss Hetty, rising in confusion.

"You are right. You rejected me, because you did not feel secure of my
principles. The next day, in despair at your refusal, I left the house,
and, ere forty-eight hours had passed, was on my way to India. I had not
formed the design of going to India in particular, but in my then state
of mind I cared not whither I went. One resolution I formed, that I
would prove by my conduct that your apprehensions were ill-founded. I
got into a profitable business. In time I married--not that I had
forgotten you, but that I was solitary and needed companionship. I had
ceased to hope for yours. By-and-by a daughter was born. True to my old
love, I named her Hetty, and pleased myself with the thought that she
bore some resemblance to you. Since then, my wife has died, misfortunes