overheard my father one day say, 'Rebecca, how did Leah like the
mantle and brooch the baron sent her?'

"'Oh, she thought them beautiful, as they are,' was the quick reply;
'but like a generous girl-there are few such-she begged her sister
to keep them, as suitable bridal gifts from her, as well as tokens
of her love.'

"'She's a dear unselfish creature,' replied my father, with the
credulity of a child; 'I never saw another young person just like
her. She's so deep and hidden in her nature, one cannot easily read
her thoughts. I wish sometimes she was more open and confiding; but
she is a darling, for all her reticence.'

"'Yes, and loves Sarah to idolatry,' was the smooth, well-put
rejoinder.

"This much I heard, dear Lizzie, of the conversation, and then,
with a horrified, sickening sensation, I flew away-flew away to
solitude, and communion with myself.

"I dared not undeceive my father; and as to the gifts my heart cried
out, 'Go, vain baubles, go? What are diamonds and velvet to a
desolate soul? Go, as Mark Abrams, and many other things rightfully
mine, have gone from me--through treachery and fraud.'

"At this dreadful discovery, dear Lizzie, I longed for your true
heart, so warm with sympathy, but it was far, far away, and no
medium of communication between us but the soulless, tearless pen.
That was inadequate then; now, the feeling has passed.