escape, would dismiss it as soon as possible from my mind."

"I am, Jane," responded the other, partially rousing herself from her
reverie; "I am both grateful and happy at my providential escape. But
you are mistaken in supposing it is that scene which disquiets me
to-night."

"Indeed!" replied the former, with a look of mingled surprise and
curiosity. "Why, I have been attributing your dejection and absence of
mind, this evening, to that cause alone. What else can have occurred
to disturb your thoughts to-night, let me ask?"

"Jane, in confidence, I will tell you," replied Miss Haviland, looking
the other in the face, and speaking in a low, serious tone. "It is the
discovery which I have made, or at least think I have, this day, made,
respecting the true character of one who should command, in the
relation I stand with him, my entire esteem."

"Mr. Peters? Though of course it is he to whom you allude. But what
new trait have you discovered in him, to-day, that leads you to
distrust his character?"

"What I wish I had not; what I still hope I may be deceived in; but
what, nevertheless, forces itself upon my mind, in spite of all my
endeavors to resist it. You recollect Mr. Jones's account of the
lawsuit, in which Mr. Peters succeeded in obtaining the farm of this
Mr. Woodburn, whose gallant conduct we have all this afternoon
witnessed?"

"Yes, certainly."