"Be very tolerant with that poor little deceived sister of yours!"
his fiancee had implored, her diamond eyes bedimmed by
quick-springing damps of commiseration. "Recollect that the
consciousness of wasted love is always harder to bear than what is
commonly known as bereavement. If you find her refractory, be
patient and persuasive, instead of dictatorial. Craft often effects
what overt violence would attempt in vain."

"Craft!" The word struck unpleasantly upon the Virginia lordling's
ear, and he echoed it with a suspicion of a frown upon his brow. "I
am not an adept in chicanery!"

"But you are a born diplomatist!" seductively. "And because I am of
the same credulous sex as our mistaken little darling, you will not
proceed to open warfare with her, even should she be both to resign
her lover? It is the glory of the strong to show charity to the weak
and erring."

For her sake, then, our flattered diplomatist would try the effect
of guile, instead of brutality, upon the helpless girl, the balance
of whose fate was grasped by his shapely hand. For one base second,
the idea of attempting an imitation of his sister's handwriting
flashed through his mind. But he was a gentleman, and forgery is not
a gentlemanly vice, any more than is counterfeiting bank-notes.
Finally, the author of craft--the subtle, refined virtue bepraised
by his bride-elect--the devil--came to his help.

Mabel, like most other girls, had a dainty and fantastic taste in
the matter of letter-paper and envelopes. She used none but French