ancestry which I may at least claim on the mother's side, by
proclaiming that I had lived with that low Englishman as his wife,
when I was only--O heavens, I cannot conclude the sentence!

"No, Mons. le Marquis, I am in no want of the pecuniary aid you so
generously wish to press on me. Though I know not where to address
my poor dear uncle,--though I doubt, even if I did, whether I could
venture to confide to him the secret known only to yourself as to
the name I now bear--and if he hear of me at all he must believe me
dead,--yet I have enough left of the money he last remitted to me
for present support; and when that fails, I think, what with my
knowledge of English and such other slender accomplishments as I
possess, I could maintain myself as a teacher or governess in some
German family. At all events, I will write to you again soon, and I
entreat you to let me know all you can learn about my uncle. I feel
so grateful to you for your just disbelief of the horrible calumny
which must be so intolerably galling to a man so proud, and,
whatever his errors, so incapable of a baseness.

"Direct to me Poste restante, Augsburg.

"Yours with all consideration,


LETTER II.

(Seven months after the date of Letter 1.)

"AUGSBURG.