remember furthermore, that she followed him to the door after he
bade us adieu; and what words she may have let slip there, Heaven
only knows! I have had a lurking suspicion for some time, that she
was planning to win Mark's love from me, and secure it for my sister
Sarah. What if she should succeed. Oh! how wretched I should be! It
has been a year, nearly, since Mark and I secretly pledged our love,
and he promised then that we should be married soon after I finished
at Madam Truxton's. How fondly I have looked forward to that coming
day! It has been the one single hope of my miserable life; and now
that the time draws so near, is it possible that my dream must
vanish into nothingness? Must this heart taste the bitterness of
deception, among its other sorrows? Miserable girl that I am! Surely
some evil star shone over the hour and place of my birth. But I'll
hope on for the best, and still continue to look forward to the
coming day, when my life shall be separated from the wretched woman
who now so darkly overshadows my existence. I'll hope on, even
though disappointment come at last." The soliloquy ended, Leah laid
away the pearls in the velvet-lined case, and turned to slumber and
dreams.

Mark Abrams, the early friend and lover of Leah, was the oldest son
of a talented and highly-esteemed rabbi, who presided over the most
flourishing and wealthy Jewish congregation in the Queen City; and
Mark himself was highly esteemed, as a young man of unimpeachable
integrity and unusual brilliancy of intellect.