that I _did_ comply with them? what a fatal act is that of plighting
hands when the heart is estranged! Never, never let the placable and
compassionate spirit be seduced into a union to which the affections are
averse. Let it not confide in the afterbirth of love. Such a union is the
direst cruelty even to the object who is intended to be benefited.

I have not yet thoroughly forgiven you for deserting me. My heart
swells with anguish at the thought of your setting more lightly by my
resentment than by that of another; of your willingness to purchase any
one's happiness at the cost of mine. You are too wise, too dispassionate,
by far. Don't despise me for this accusation, Henry; you know my unbiassed
judgment has always been with you. Repeated proofs have convinced me that
my dignity and happiness are safer in your keeping than in my own.

You guess right, my friend. Miss Jessup told me of your visits to this
poor sick woman. There is something mysterious in the character of this
Polly Jessup. She is particularly solicitous about every thing which
relates to you. It has occurred to me, since reading your letter, that she
is not entirely without design in her prattle. Something more, methinks,
than the mere tattling, gossiping, inquisitive propensity in the way in
which she introduces you into conversation.

She had not alighted ten minutes before she ran into my apartment, with
a face full of intelligence. The truth respecting the washwoman was very
artfully disguised, and yet so managed as to allow her to elude the
imputation of direct falsehood. She will, no doubt, in this as in former
cases, cover up all under the appearance of a good-natured jest; yet, if
she be in jest, there is more of malice, I suspect, than of good nature in
her merriment.