you come up to town, and I filled an album with verses. I used to
write them at night. My window was right in front of the river, and
the moon used to sail past, and in the morning I used to read her the
poems I made overnight beneath the branches of the cedar, where we
used to run the boat. But the father was a brute. I got the best of
him once though. It was a private view day at the Academy, and he had
forbidden Nellie to speak to me--even to notice me. I went straight up
to her, and took her away under his very nose before he could stop us.
We walked about all day. Oh! he was mad."

"If she was willing to brave her father in that way, why was your
engagement broken off?"

"My uncle was so very difficult to deal with. I didn't see her for
some time." Frank did not say--perhaps, he did not know--that his
engagement had been broken off through his own instability and
weakness of character. The young lady, whom he called Nellie, had told
him she would wait if he would elect a profession and work for a place
in it. But Frank had not been able to forego late hours and
restaurants, and Nellie had married some one who could. "You know I
converted her. Doesn't her father hate me for that! We used to go to
high mass at the oratory. I explained to her the whole of the Catholic
religion."

"But I thought you didn't believe in it yourself?"

"I am talking of some time ago; besides, a woman, it isn't quite the
same thing; and if I have saved her soul! I don't know if I told you
that I was writing a novel; I don't think I did. The idea of it is
this: A young man has loved three women. The first charmed him by her