never a punctual correspondent. The best of friends are apt to be
dilatory in such respects, as they advance in life."

"I gather, then, from what you have ADMITTED"--there was no actual
stress upon the word, but it stood obnoxiously apart from the
remainder of the sentence, to Mrs. Sutton's auriculars--"from what
you have admitted, that for twenty years you have lost sight of this
gentleman and his relatives, and that you might never have
remembered the circumstance of their existence, had he not
introduced himself to you at the Springs this summer."

"You are mistaken, there!" corrected the widow, eagerly. "Rosa
Tazewell introduced him to Mabel at the first 'hop'
she--Mabel--attended there. He is very unassuming. He would never
have forced himself upon my notice. I was struck by his appearance
and resemblance to his father, and inquired of Mabel who he was. The
recognition followed as a matter of course."

"He was an acquaintance of Miss Tazewell--did you say?"

"Yes--she knew him very well when she was visiting in Philadelphia
last winter."

"And proffered the introduction to Mabel?" the faintest imaginable
glimmer of sarcastic amusement in his eyes, but none in his accent.

"He requested it, I believe."

"That is more probable. Excuse my frankness, aunt, when I say that
it would have been more in consonance with the laws controlling the