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?^^??i? ff"^^W^"^!l"^^^SI^','''M,MM'M'^* "gl?f^^^'!^g?!iBgffg*FM''''"wgggggg|!^l'l!!gFB^^g!g!ffg!''*"!^^^l!*ggffgg gii!g"!g MIM*l*BMMMM*'aiMM'''M,M i , ???. "'^ ^ ^ ?.-?- =?? j ?? ' ' ^" _ . ' ^ ^ ^ ^ "S~~ ^? lewis m. gbist, Proprietor.} ^ii ?itkj)miitiil JfantHg ftospapa:: Jfcr % |Jr0motior of % PM. Social, ^grioltarsl rail drannertial Interests of % ?01% |TERMS?$8.00 A TEAR, Df ADVANCE. * ' - / . <j ' "'. "! . . . r' . . 1 ^ 1 "I 'j' ' " ....' ' 1 VOL. 16. YORKVILLE, S. O., .THTJBfSDAY. -AUGTJST 18, 1870. . . NOi 83. * rf':-j- , .' ' .1 1 - il?Lfll.J 1 J She JTtorg teller. A PLOT IN PRIVATE LIFE. CHAPTER I. The first place I got when I began going out to service was not a very profitable one. I certainlygained the advantage of learning my business thoroughly, but I never had my due in the matter of wages. My master was made a bankrupt, and his servants suffered with .the rest of his creditors. My second situation, however, amply compensated me for my want of luck in the first I had the good fortune to enter the service of Mr. and Mrs. Norcross. My master was a very rich gentleman. He had the Darrock house and lands in Cumberland, an estate also in Yorkshire, and a very large property in Jamaica, which produced, at that time, and for some years afterward, a great incoma Out in the West Indies he met with a young lady, a governess in an English family, and, taking a vlble# ffcacy lb her, married her, ii*3u?h mtmm n rmrul fi^ft-and-twentv vears vounger than himself. After the wedding they came to England, and it was at this time that I was lucky enough to be engaged by them as a servant I lived with my new master and mistress three years. They had no children. At the end of that period Mr. Norcross died. He was sharp enough to forever that his young widow would marry again, and he bequeathed his property so that it all vent to Mrs. Norcross first, and then to any children she might have by a second marriage, and, failing that, to relations and friends of his own. I did not suffer by my master's denth, for his widow kept me in her service. 1" had attended on Mr. Norcross all through his last illness, and had made myself useful enough to win my mistress' favor and gratitude. Beside me she also retained her maid in her service?a quadroon woman named Josephine, whom she brought with her from the West Indies. Even at that time I disliked the half-breed's wheedling manners, and her cruel, tawny face, and wondered how my mistress could be so fond of her as she was. Time showed that I was right in distrusting this woman. I shall have much more to say about her when I get farther advanced with my story. ?UIl/> T Viiitto nflrt f/\ rplftip that mv XULOOU1TUJ1D A um v v uvaw wv * y mistress broke up the rest of her establishment, and, taking me and the lady's maid with her, went to travel oh the Continent. Among other wonderful places we visited Paris, Genoa, Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples, staying in some of those cities for months together. The fame of my mistress' riches followed her wherever she went; and there were plenty of gentlemen, foreigners as well as Englishmen, who were anxious enough to get into her good graces and to prevail on her to marry them. Nobody succeeded, however, in producing any very strong j or lasting impression on her; and when we came back to England, after more.than two years of absence, Mrs. Norcross was still a widow, and showed no signs of wanting to We w#at to the house on the Yorkshire estate first; but my mistress did not fancy some of the -company round about, so we moved again to Darrock Hall, and made excursions from time to time in the lake district, some miles off. On one of these trips Mrs. Norcross met with some old friends, who introduced her to a gentleman of their party bearing the very common and very uninteresting name of Mr. James Smith. He was a tall, fine young man enough, with black hair, which grew very long, and the biggest, bushiest pair of black whiskers I ever saw. Altogether he had a rakish, unsettled look, and a bounceable way of talking which made him the prominent person in company. He was poor enough himself, as I j heard from his servant, but well connected? a gentleman by birth and education, though his manners were so free. What my mistress saw in him I don't know; but when she asked j her friends to stay with her at Darrock, she j included Mr. James ami in in ine inviiauon. We had a fine, gay, noisy time Of it at the Hall, the strange gentleman in particular, making himself as much at home as if the place belonged \to him. I was surprised at Mrs. Norcross putting up with him as she did, but I was fairly thunderstruck some months afterward when I heard that she and her free-and-easy visitor were actually going ! to be married! She had refused offers by! dozens abroad, from higher and richer and better-behaved men. It seemed next to impossible that she could seriously think of throwing herself away upon such a harebrained, headlong, penniless young gentleman as Mr. James Smith. Married, nevertheless, they were, in due course of time; and, after spending the honeymoon abroad, they came back to Darrock Hall. I soon found that my slew master had a very variable temper. There were some days when he was as easy, and familiar, and pleasant with his servants as any gentleman need be. At other times some devil within seemed to get possession of his whole nature. He flew into violent passions, and took wrong ideas into his head, which no reasoning or remonstrance could remove. It rather amazed me, considering how gay he was in his tastes, and how restless his habits were, that he should consent to live at such a quiet, dull place as Darrock. The reason for this, however, soon came out. Mr. James Smith was not much of sportsman; he cared nothing for in-door amusements, such as reading, music, and so forth; and he had no ambition for representinor the eountv in Parliament. The one pur suit that he was really fond of was yachting. Darrock was within sixteen miles of a seaport town, with an excellent harbor, and to this accident of position the Hall was entirely indebted for recommending itself as a place of residence to Mr. James Smith. He had such an untiring enjoyment and delight in cruising about the sea, and all his ideas of pleasure seemed to be so closely connected with his remembrance of the sailing trips he had taken on board different yachts belonging to his friends, that I verily believe his chief object in marrying my mistress was to get the command of money enough to keep a vessel for himself. Be that as it may, it is certain that he prevailed on her, sometime after their marriage, to make him a present of a fine schooner yacht, which was brought round from Cowes to our coast-town, and kept always waiting ready for him in the harbor. His wife required some little persuasion before she could make up her mind to let him f ?/ y V ^ I have the vessel. She suffered so much from sea-sickness that pleasure-sailing was out of . the question for her; and, being "very fond of , her husband, she was naturally unwilling that ; he should engage in an amusement which took i him away from her. However, Mr. James ! Smith used his influence over her cleverly, promising that he would never go away without first asking her leave, and engaging that his terms of absence at sea should never last for more than a week or ten days affe time.; Accordingly, my mistress, who was the kindest and most unselfish woman in the world, put her own feelings aside, and made her husband happy in the possession of a vessel of his own. While my master was away cruising, my mistress had a dull time of it at the Hall. 1 The few gentlefolks there were in our part of < ' the county lived at a distance, and could only i come to Darrock when they were asked to I * - A ~ * j stay there tor some (lays logemer. iui mo village near us, there was but one person liv- : ing in it whom my mistress could think of ] askings the Haft, uud tbaV person wis I'kc | clergyman who did duty at the church. This gentleman's name was Mr. Meeke. ' He was a# single {pan, very young and . very 1 lonely in his position. He had a mild, mel- i ancholy, pasty-looking face, and was as shy i and soft-spoken as a little girl?altogether what 1 one may call, without being unjust or severe, ; a poor, weak creature, and out of all sight, the very worst preacher I ever sat under in J my life. The one thing he did, which, aB J i heard, he could really dp well, was playing on < the fiddle. He was uncommonly fond of < music?so much so that he often took his in- ] strument out with him when he went for a i wait This taste of his was his great recom- i mendation to my mistress, who was a wonder- 1 fully fine player on the piano, and who was J delighted to get such a performer as Mr. Meeke j to play duets with. her. Besides liking his ? society for this .reason, she felt for him in his 1 lonely position; naturally enough, 1 think, i considering how often she was left in solitude 1 herself. Mr. Meeke, on his side, when he got t over his first shyness, was only too glad to f leave his lonesome little parsonage for the 1 fine music-room at the Hall, and for the i company of a handsome, kind-hearted lady, f who made much of him, and admired his fid- i die-playing with all her heart Thus it hap- 1 pened that, whenever my master was away at < sea, my mistress and Mr. Meeke were always I together, playing duets as if. they had their c living to get by it A more harmless connec- s tion than the connection between those two never existed in this world ; and yet, inno- t cent as it was, it turned out to be the cause of 1 all the misfortunes that afterward happened. ^ My master's treatment of Mr. Meeke was, * from the first, the very opposite of my mis- J tress'. The restless, rackety, bouuceable Mr. 1 James Smith felt a contempt for the weak, c womanish, fiddling little parson, and, what * was more, did not care to conceal it. For * this reason, Mr. Meeke (who was dreadfully ( frightened by my master's violent language 8 -and rough ways) very seldom visited at the \ jHall except when my mistress was alone there. ^ raeajfi^t nJ^wrong, ind therefore sloping to* / no concealment, she never though^of taking n any measures to keep Mr. Meeke out of the jway when he happened to be with her at the 1 time of her husband's coming home, whether * it was only from a riding excursion in the neighborhood or from a cruise in the schoon er. In this way it so turned out that when- t ever my master came home, after a long or w j short absence, in nine cases out of ten he 1 I found the parson at the Hall. 8 I At first he used to laugh at this circum- J I stance, and to amuse himself with some coarse t I jokes at the expense of his wife and her com! panion. But, after a while, his variable tern- ? I per changed, as usual. He grew sulky, rude, angry, and, at last, downright jealous of Mr. * Meeke. Though too proud to confess it in so ' many words, he still showed the state of his mind clearly enough to my mistress to excite her indignation. She was a woman who could * be led anywhere by any one for whom she had a regard, but there was a firm spirit within . her that rose at the slightest show of injustice or oppression, and that resented tyranical us- , age of any sort perhaps a little too warmly, j The bare suspicion that her husband could feel any distrust of her set her all in a flame, j and she took the most unfortunate, and yet, ! at the same time, the most natural way for a woman, of resenting it The ruder her hus- , band was to Mr. Meeke, the more kindly she behaved to him. This led to serious disputes * and dissensions, and thence, in time, to a violent quarrel. I could not avoid hearing the last part of the altercation between them, , for it took place in the garden-walk, outside the dining-room window, while I was occupied , in laying the table for lunch. Without repeating their words?which I . I have no right to do, having heard by accident what I had no right to hear?I may i say generally, to show how serious the quar- \ iel was, that my mistress charged my master with having married from mercenary motives, with keeping out of her company as much as he could, and insulting her by a suspicion? . which it would be hard ever to forgive, and as impossible ever to forget. I^e replied by violent language directed against herself, and by commanding her never to open the doors again to Mr. Meeke; she, on her side, declar- | j ing that she would never consent to insult a j I clergyman and a gentleman in order to satis- . fy the whim of a tyranical husband. Upon that he called out, with a great oath, to have , his horse saddled directly, declaring that he j would uot stop another instant under the same roof ?with a woman who had set him at j defiance, and warning his wife that he would come back, if Mr. Meeke entered the house again, and horsewhip him, in spite of his black coat, all through the village. With those, words he left her, and rode away i to the sea-port where his yacht was lying. My , mistress kept up her spirit till he was out of , sight, and then burst into a dreadful scream- ing passion of tears, which ended by leaving her so weak that she had to be carried to her j bed like a woman who was at the point of < death. | The same evening my master's horse was : ridden back by .a messenger, who brought a 1 scrap of note paper with him addressed to me. j It only contained these lines : "Pack up my clothes.and deliver them im-; mediately to the bearer. You may tell your j mistress that I sail to-night at eleven o'clock J I for a cruise to Sweden. Forward my letters to the post-office, Stockholm." I obeyed the orders given to me except that relating to my mistress. The doctor had been sent for and was still in the house. I consult-; ed him upon the propriety of my delivering ; the message. He positively forbade me to i do so that night, and told me to give him the | slip of paper, and leave it to his discretion to show it to her or not the next morning. The messenger had hardly been gone an hour when Mr. Meeke's housekeeper came to the Hall with a roll of music for my mistress. I told the woman of my master's sudden departure, and of the doctor being in the house. This news brought Mr. Meeke himself to the Hall in a great flutter. I-felt so angry with him for lieing the cause, innocent as he might be, of the shocking scene which had taken place, that I exceeded the bounds of my duty, and told him the whole truth. The poor, weak, wavering, childish creature flushed up red in the face, then turned as pale as ashes, and dropped into one of the knll stliaira /^rvinor llfftrftll v nrvinir fit to hreak I V,?e J ?J?O ? his heart "Oh! William," says he, wringing his little frail, trembling white hands as helplessas a baby* "oh 1 William, what aft) I Adof- -f- fN "As you ask me that question, sir," says I, 'you will excuse me, I hope, if, being a servant, I plainly speak my mind not withstanding. I know my station well enough to Be iware that strictly speaking, I have done . nrrong and far exceeded my duty, in telling pou as much as I have told you already; but | [ would go through fire and water, sir," says < [, feeling my own eyes getting moist, "for my nistress' sake. She has no relation here who i ?n speak to you; and it is even better that i servant like me should be guilty of an im- , pertinence, than that dreadful and lasting 3 nischief should arise from the right remedy j lot being applied at the right time. This is vhat I should do, sir, in your place. Saving jrour presence, I should leave off* crying, and jo back hotpe and write to Mr. James Smith, laying that I would not, as a clergyman, give , lim railing for railing, but would prove how , mworthily he had suspected me, bv ceasing o visit at the Hall from this time forth, rather ban be a cause of dissension between man ind wife. If you will put that into proper . anguage, sir, and will have the letter ready for ne in an hour's time, I will call for it on the astest horse in our stables, and, at my own isk, will give it to my master before he sails lb-night I have nothing more to say, sir, exjept to ask your pardon for forgetting my >roper place, and for making bold to speak >n a very serious matter as equal to equal, tnd as man to man." To do Mr. Meeke justice, he had a heart, hough it was a very small one. He shook lands with me and said he accepted my adrice as the advice of a friend, and so went lack to the parsonage to $rite.the letter. In mlf an hour I called for it on horseback, but t was not ready for me. Mr. Meeke was riliculously nice about how he should express j limself when he got a pen into his hand. I g bund him with his desk littered with rough :opies and in agony about how to turn his phra- j es delicately enough in referring to my mis- t rp*3. Every minute being precious, I hurried t dm as much as I could, without standing on L mexoony. Ittootfhalfan houror more, iith, k .1 my efforts befor* he could make up his mind } nnt the letter would do. I started off with g t at a gallop, and never drew rein till I got o the sea-port town. j The harbor clock chimed the quarter past } sleven as I rode by it, and when I got down g o the jetty there was no yacht to be be seen, j >he had been cast off from her moorings ten ^ ninutes before eleven, and as the clock struck j he had sailed out of the harbor. I would j lave followed in a boat, but it was a fine star- ^ ight night, with a fresh wind blowing, and t he sailors on the pier laughed at me when I ipoke of rowing after a schooner yacht which ] iad got a quarter of an hour's start of us, ( vith the wihd abeam and the tide in her fa- r JOT. j I rode back with a heavy heart. All I i xmld do now was to send the letter to the x>st-office; Stockholm. 7 | The next day the doctor showed my mis,ress the scrap of paper with the message on ( t from my master, and an hour or two after ( ;hat, a letter was sent to her in Mr. Meeke's 1 landwriting, explaining the'reason why she 1 nust not expect to see him at the Hall, and * eferring to me in terms of high praise as a ^ sensible and faithful man who had spoken the ^ ight word at the right time. I am able to repeat the substance of the letter, because I ^ leard all about it from ray .mistress, .under wry unpleasant circumstances so far as I was ^ joncerned. The news of my master's departure did not iffect her as the doctor had supposed it would. 1 instead of distressing her, it roused her spirit uid made her angry; her pride, as I imagine, aeing wounded by the contemptuous manner ;n which her husband had notified his inten;ion of sailing to Sweden at the end of a mes- ' ?age to a servant about packing his clothes. Finding her in that temper-of mind, the letter from Mr. Meeke only irritated her the more. She insisted on getting up, and as soon is she was dressed and down stairs, she vent?d her violent humor on me, reproaching me !br impertinent interference in the affairs of my betters, and declaring that she had almost made up her mind to turn me out of my place for it. I did not defend myself because [ respected her sorrows and the irritation that came from them ; also, because I knew the natural kindness of her nature well enough to be assured that she would make amends to me for her harshness the moment her mind was composed again. The result showed that [ was right. That same evening she sent for me, and begged me to forgive and forget the hasty words she had spoken in the morning, with a grace and sweetness that would have won the heart of any man who listened to her. Weeks passed after this, till it was more than a month since the day of my master's departure, and no letter in his handwriting came to Darrock Hall. My mistress, taking this treatment more angrily than sorrowfully, went to London to consult her nearest relative who lived there. On leaviug home she stopped the carriage at the parsonage, and went in (as I thought, rather defiantly) to say good-by to Mr. Meeke. fclie had answered his letter, and received others from him, and had answered them likewise. She had, also, of course, seen him every Sundtfy at church, and had always stopped to speak to him after the service; but this was the first occasion on which she had visited him at his own house. As the carriage i stopped, the little parson came out, in great I hurry and agitation, to meet her at the gar-1 den gate. "Don't look alarmed, Mr. Meeke," says my < mistress, setting out. "Though you have en- f gaged not to come near the Hall, I have 1 made no promise to keep away from the par- i sonage." With those words she went into j the parsonage. The quadroon maid, Josephine, was sitting < with me in the rumble of the carriage, and I i saw a smile on her tawny face as the parson ( and his visitor went into the house together, i Harmless as Mr. Meeke was, and innocent of i all wrong as I knew my mistress to be, I re- i gretted that she should be so rash as to das- i pise appearances, considering the situation she i was placed in. She had already exposed her- 1 self to be thought of disrespectfully by her own maid, and it was hard to say what worse \ consequences might not happen after that ? t Half an hour later we were away on cm; ^ Tvin/lnn itfA f journey. Itiy IlilOLlCOO OWUU 1U MVUUVW months. Throughout all that long time no t letter from_my master was forwarded to her 1 from the country house. | CHAPTER ii. ^ When uhe two months had passed we re* 1 turned to Darrock Hall. Nobody there had r1 received any news in ourabsenee of the where- 1 abouts of my master and his yacht. * Six more weary weeks elapised, and in that j time but one event happened at the Hall to vary the dismal monotony of the lives we now t led in the solitary place. One morning Jose- I phine came down after dressing my mistress 8 with her face downright livid to look at, exsept on one cheek, where there was a mark as red as burning fire. I was in the kitchen at i the time, and I asked what was the matter. ^ "The matter!" says she, in her shrill voice uid her half-foreign English. "Use your own c ayes, if you please, and look at this cheek of * nine. What I have you lived so long a time 1 with your mistress, and don't you know the D nark of her hand yet?" I was at a loss to understand what she c neant, but she soon explained herself. Mynistress, whose temper had been sadly alter- ^ 3d for the worse by the trials and humiliations ihe had gone through, had got up that morn- ^ ng more out of humor than usual, and, in inswer to her maid's inquiry as to how she had a massed the night, had begun talking about her J weary, miserable life in an unusually fretfufc ? md desperate wav. Josephine, in trying to u * " ~ ? ft. ;heer her spirits, had ventured, most impropjrly, on making a light, jesting reference to 11 Vfr. Meeke, which had so enraged my mistress, D ;hat she turned round sharp on the half-breed 4 ind gave her?to use the common phrase?a iraart box on the ear. Josephine confessed ^ ;hat, the moment after she had done this, her ? setter sense appeared to tell her that she had 6 aken a most improper way of resenting un- 11 lue familiarity. She hqd immediately ex- * iressed her regret for having forgotten herlelf, and had proved the sincerity of it by a jift of. half a dozen cambric handkerchiefs, j presented as a peace-offering on the spot After a hat I thought it impossible that Josephine r jould bear any malice against: a mistress t y^om she^had^served ever since^^^lia^|^n^ lad do^e telling me what had'^^p^^n^| "I! Malice!" cries Miss Josephine, in heri % lard, sharp, snappish way. "And why, and J 8 vherefore, if you please? If my mistress j ^ imacks my cheek with one hand, she gives me I landkerchiefs to wipe it with the other. My j jood mistress, my kind mistress, my pretty ^ nistress! I, the servant, bear malice against c ler, the mistress! Ah! you bad man, even c o think of such a thing! Ah! fie, fie! It im quite ashamed of you !" 11 She gave me one look?the wickedest look jj [ ever saw, and burst out laughing?the harshist laugh I ever heard from a woman's lips. ? Turning away from me directly after, she said n 10 more, and never referred to the subject s igain on any subsequent occasion. 1) .Aj From that time, however, I noticed an al- . oration in Miss Josephine ; not in her way of ^ loing her work, for she was just as sharp and jareful about it as ever, but in her manners md habits. She grew amazingly quiet, and l passed almost all her leisure time alone. I v lould bring no charge against her which au- v ;horizes me to speak a word of warning; but, ior all that, 1 could not help ieenng tnat 11 11 i lad been in ray mistress' place I would have followed up the present of the cambric hand- J ierchiefs by paying her a month's wages in idvance, and sending her away from the house j ;he same evening. . f With the exception of this little domestic matter, which appeared trifling enough at the 1 time, but which led to very serious conse- r }uences afterward, nothing happened at all ^ Dut of the ordinary way during the six weary t weeks t<> which I have referred. At the be- c ginning of the seventh week, however, an j svent occurred at last. t One morning the postman brought a letter t to the Hall addressed to my mistress. I took \ It up stairs, and looked at the direction as I r put it on the salver. The handwriting was ? not my master's; was not, as it appeared to i me, the handwriting of any well-educated per- \ son. The outside of the letter was also very j[ dirty, and the seal a common usual lattice-work pattern. "This must" be \ i begging letter," I thought to myself as I en- u tered the breakfast room and advanced with , it to my mistress. . ' { She held up her hand before she opened it f as a sign to me that she had some order "to give, and that I was not to leave the room till < I had received it. Then she broke the seal ( and began to read the letter. } Her eyes had hardly been on it a moment ] before her face turned as pale as death, and the paper began to tremble in her fingers. ] She read on to the end, and suddenly turned j from pale to scarlet, started out of her ohair, j crumpled the letter up violently in her hand, ] and took several turns backward and forward , in the room, without seeming to notice me as , I stood by the door. "You villian! you villiau! you villian ! I heard her whisper to. her- : self many times over, in a quick, hissing, , fierce way. Then she stopped, and said on a , sudden, "Can it be true ?" Then she looked j up, and, ageing me standing at the door, , started as if I had been a stranger, changed j color again, and told me in a stifled voice, to j leave her and come back again in half an j hour. I obeyed, feeling certain that she must , have received some very bad news of her ^ husband, and wondering, anxiously enough, . what it might be. , When I returned to the breakfast-room her 1 face was as much discomposed as ever. Without speaking a word, she handed me two seab jd letters: one, a note to be left for Mr. Meeke tt th%parsonage; the other, a letter marked ^Immediate," and addressed to her solicitor in London, who was also, I should add, her learest living relative. J left one of these letters and posted the >ther. When I came back, I heard that my Distress had taken to her room. She remained there for four days, keeping her new sorrow* whatever it was, strictly to herself. On ht fifth day the lawyer from London arrived ft the Sail. My mistress went#down to him n the library, and was shut up with him or nearly two hours. At the end of that ime tbe bell rang for me. "Sit down, William," said my mistress, rhen I came into the room. "I feel such enare} confidence in your fidelity and attachneftt, that I am about, with the full concurrence of this gentleman, who is my near relaaveiuad my legal adviser, to place a very seiouafgpet in s your keeping, and to employ on a matter which is as imporjmtered as she spoke to me. I was so starJed by what she had said that I hardly knew rhich chair to sit on. She pointed to. one lear herself at the table, and seemed about o speak to me again, when the lawyer interbred. "Let me entreat you," he said, "not to agiate yourself unnecessarily. I will put this >erson in possession of the facts, and, if I omit nything, you shall stop me and set me right" My mistress leaned back in her chair and overed her face with her handkerchief. The awyer waited a moment, and then addressed limself tome. "You are already aware," he said, "of the ircumBtances under which your master left hisjiouse, and you also know, I have no doubt, bat no direct news of him has reached your Distress up to this time ?' I bowed to him and said I knew of the cirumfctarices so far. "Do you remember," he went on, "taking a Btter to your mistress five days ago ?" "Yes, sir," I replied; "a letter which seemed o distress and alarm her very seriously." "I will read you that letter before we say ay more," continued the lawyer. "I warn on jjeforehand that it contains a terrible hfcffce against your master, which, however, i not attested by the writer's signature. I lave already told your mistress that she must iot attach too much importance to an anonymous letter; and I now tell you the same hing." Saying that, he took up a letter from the able and read it aloud. I had a copy of it ;iyen to me afterward, which I looked at often nough to fix the contents of the letter in my memory. I can now repeat them, I think, rord for word. Madam,?I can not reconcile it to my concience to leave you in total ignorance of our husband's atrocious conduct toward you. f you have ever been disposed to regret his bsence, do so no longer. Hope and pray, ather, that you and he may never meet face o face again in this world. I write in great lag^jnd in great fear of being observed. >"u ugs!Fto e jfcrepa'red fo!^wh#t I how f ave to disclose. ! ulhst tell you plainly, with much respect or you and sorrow for your misfortune, that our husband has married another wife. I aw the ceremony performed, unknown to lim. If I could not have spoken of this inamous act as an eye-witness, I would not lave spoken of it at all. I dare not acknowledge who I am, for I lelieve Mr. James Smith would stick at no rime to revenge himself on me, if he ever ame to a knowledge of the step I am now aking, and of the means by which I got my aformation; 1 either have I time to enter into particulars. "I simply warn you of what has lappened, and leave you to act on that earning as you please. You may disbelieve bis letter because it is not signed by any ame. In that case, if .Mr. James Smith bo.'Id ever venture into your presence, ask lim suddenly what he has done with his new and to see if his countenance does not qimediately testify to the truth of what has ?een spoken by Your Unknown Friend. Poor as my opinion was of my master, I tad never believed him to be capable of such illainy as this, and I could not believe it ?hen the lawyer had done reading the letter. :,Oh! sir," I said, "surely that is some base mpo3ition ? Surely it cannot be true ?" "That is what I have told your mistress," le answered. "But she says in return?" . "That I feel it lo .be true," my mistress broke n, speaking behind the handkerchief in a aint, smothered Voice. srrT -i i'.i JA.i. A. .! ? A. "We neea not ueuaie uie quKsuuu, me awyer went on. "Our business now is to >rove the truth or falsehood of this letter. Ch& must be done at once. I have written o one of my clerks, who is accustomed to inducting delicate investigations, to come 4p his house without loss ef time. He is to be rusted with anything, and he will pursue the teeclful enquiries immediately. It isabsolutey nepessary, to make sure of committing no nfttakqs, that he should be accompanied by ome one who is well acquainted with Mr. jifithee Smith's habits and personal appearmcejtnd your mistress has fixed upon you to )c tKat person. However well the enquiry is ^MMTiTmay be attended by much trouble mil flway, may necessitate a long journey, md way involve some personal danger. Are /ou," said the lawyer, looking hard at me, 'ready to sufTer any inconvenience and to run my risk for your mistress' sake ?" ( "There is nothing I can do, sir," said I, that I will not do. I am afraid I am not jlever enough to be of much use; but, so far is troubles' and risks are concernea, i am ready for anything from this moment." My mistress took the handkerchief from aer face, looked at me with her eyes full of ;eare, and held out her hand. How I came x> do it I don't know, but I stooged down and kissed the hand she offered me. feeling half startled, half ashamed at my own boldness the moment after. "You will do, my man," said the lawyer nodding his head. "Don't trouble yourself ibout the cleverness or cunning that may be wonted. My clerk has got head enough for two. I have only one more word to say before you go down stairs again. Remember that this investigation and the cause that leads to it must be kept a profound secret. Except us thre*-and the clergyman here (to whom your mistress has written word of what has happened), nobody knows anything about it I will let ray clerk into the secret when he joins us. As soon as you and he are away from the house, you may talk about it Until then you will close your lips on the subject" The clerk did not keep us long waiting. I I He came as fast as the mail from London could bring him. I had expected, from his master's description, to see a serious, sedate man, rather sly in his looks, and rather reserved in his manner. To my amazement, this practised hand at delicate investigations was a brisk, plump, jolly little man, with a comfortable doablecliin, a pair of very bright black eyes, and a big bottle-nose of the true groggy red color. He wore a suit of black ; and a limp, dingy while cravat; took tauff perpetually out of a very large box; walied with his hands crossed behind his back, and looked, upon the whole, much more like a person of freeand-easy habits than a lawyer's clerk. "How d'ye do T" says he when I opened the door to him. -Vl'm the man you expect from the office in London. Just say Mr. Dark will you ? Ill ait down till yon come back; and, young man, if there is such a thing as a glass of ale In the house, I don't mind committing myself so modi as to say that I'll drink it"! v/ got mfai the ale UL'.'.ir? I an icimdbd him. He winked at me as he put it to his life. "Your good health," says he. "I like you. Don'frforget that the name is Dark; andf just leave the jug and glass, will you, in case iny master keeps me waiting." I" announced him at once, and was told to show him into the library. When I got back to the hall the jog was empty,and Mr. Dark was comforting himself with a pinch of snuff, snorting over it like a perfect grampus. He had swallowed more than a pint of the strongest old ale in the houc"; and, for all the effect it seemed to have had on him, he might just as well have been drinking so much water. / '*)' As I led him along the passage to the liJjrary Josephine passed us. Mr. Dark winked at me again, and made her a low bow. "Lady's maid," I heard him whisper to himself. "A fine woman to look at, but a damned bad one to deal with." I turned round oh him, rather angry at his cool ways, and looked hard at him just before I opened the library door. Mr. Dark looked hard at me. "All right," says he. "I can shqw myself in." And he knocks at the door, and opens it, and goes in with another wicked wink all in a moment '" Half an hour later the bell rang for me. Mr. Dark was sitting between my mistress (who was looking at- him with amazement) and the lawyer (who was looking at him with approval). He had a' map open on his knee, and a pen in his hand. Judging by his face, ? ... 1 . x | tne communication 01 tne secret aoout my master did not seem to have made the small* est impression on him. ' "I've got leave to ask you a question," says he, the moment I appeared. "When you found your master's yacht gone, did you hear which way she had sailed? Was it northward toward Scotland? Speak up, young man, speak up!" ? ' "Yes," I answered. "The boatmen told me that when I made enquiries at the harbor." "Well, sir," says Mr. Dark, turning to the lawyer, "if he said he was going, to Sweden, lie tusLs. to bkastarttoLnnWrpad jt&sQ all evqots. Itthink I pave got my rastruoT tions now ?" The lawyer nodded, and looked at ray mistress, who bowed her head to him. He then said, turning to me, "Pack up your bag for traveling at once, and have a conveyance got ready to go to the nearest post-town. Look sharp, young man? look sharp!" "And. whatever happens in the future," added my mistress, her kind .voice trembling a little, "believe, William, that I shall never forget the proof you now show ofyour devotion to me. It is still some comfort to know that I have your fidelity to depend on in this dreadful trial?your fidelity and the extraordinary intelligence and experience of Mr. Dark." Mr. Dark did not seem to hear the compliment He was busy writing, with his paper upon the map on his knee. A quarter of an hour later, when I had ordered the dog-cart, and had got down into the hall with my bag packed, I found him there waiting for me. He was sitting in the same chair which he had occupied when he first arrived, and he had another jug of: the old ale on the table by his side. "Got any fishing-rods in the house ?" says he, when I put my bag down in the hall. " "Yes," I replied, astonished at the question. "What do you want with them V7 "Pack a couple in cases for traveling," says Mr. Dark, "with lines, and hooks, and flybooks all complete. Have a drop of the ale before you go?and don'tstare, William, don't stare. I'll let the light in on you as soon as we are out of the house. Off with you for the rods! I want to be on the road in five minutes. When I came back with the rods and tackle I found Mr. Dark in the dog-cart. "Money, luggage, fishing rods, papers of direction, copy of anonymous letter, guide book, map," says he, running over in his mind the things wanted for the journey?"all right so far. f>rive off." # ) I took the reins and started the home. As we left the house I saw my mistress and Josephine looking after us, from two of the windows on the second floor. The memory of tHose two attentive faces?one so fair and so good, the other so yellow and so wicked? haunted my mind perpetually for many days afterward. "Now, William-," says Mr. Dark, when we were clear of the lodge gates, "I'm goin~ to begin by telling you that you must step out of your own character till further notice. You are a clerk in a bank, and I'm another. We ' have got our regular holiday, that comes, like Christmas, once a year, and we are taking a little tour in Scotland to see the curiosities, ' and to breathe the sea air, and to get some fishing whenever we can. I'm the fat cashier who digs holes in a drawerful of gold with a copper shovel, and you're the arithmetical young man who sits on a perch behind me and keeps the book. Scotland's a beautiful country, William. Can you make whisky-toddy? I can; and, what's more, unlikely as the thing may seem to you, I can actually drink it into the bargain." "Scotland 1" says I. "What are we going to Scotland for ?" "Question for question," says Mr. Dark. "What are we starting on a journey for ?" i "To find my master," I answered, "and to make sure if the letter about him is true." "Very good," said he. "How would you set about doing that, eh ?" "I should go and ask About him at Stock> holm, in Sweden, where be said his letters were'to be sent" "Should yon, indeed V* said Mr. Dark. "If yon were a shepherd, William, and had lost asheep in Cumberland, would yon begin looking for it^at the Land's end, or would you try a little nearer home?" "You're attempting to make a fool of me now," says L "No," says Mr. Dark, "I'm only letting the light in on yon, as I said I would. Now listen to reason, William, and profit by it as much as yon can. Mr. James Smith says he is going on a cruise to Sweeden, and makes his word good, at the beginning, by starting northward toward the ooast of Scotland, In what does he go ? A yacht Do yischts cany live beasts ana a- batcher on board ?. No. Will joints of meat keep fresh all the way from Cumberland to Sweden? No. Do gentlemen like living on salt pro visions? No. What follows from these three Noes? That Mr. James Smith must have stopped some that case, must hentop? Somewhere in Sootland, supposing he didn't alter hi* bonne when he was out of sight of your abb-port. Where in Scotland? Northward on the f main land, or westward at one of the.ielands? Most likely on the main land, where the sea side placet are the largest, and where he is sure of getting all the Stores he wants. Next, what is our business ? Not to risk losing a link in the chain of evidence by missing any plaoe where he has put his foot on shore. Not to overshoot the mark when we want to hit it in the bull's-eye. Not to waste money and time by taking a long and tedious trip to Sweden till we know that we must absolutely go there. Where is our journey of discovery to take us to first, then? Clearly to the north of Scotland. What do you say to that, Mr. William ? Is my catechism all correct, or has your strong ale muddled my head ? It was evident by this time that no ale could do that, and I told him so. He chuckled, winked at me, and, taking another pinch of snuff, said he would now turn the whole case over in his mind again, and make sure that he had got all the bearings of it quite clear. By the time we reached the post town he had accomplished this mental effort to his own perfect satisfaction, and was quite ready frt nnmrmw* the *1a at the inn with the ale at Darrock Hall. The dog-cart was left to be taken back the next morning by the ostler. A post-chaise and horses were ordered out. A loaf of bread, a Bologna sausage, and two bottles of sherry were put into the pockets of the carriage; we took our seats and started briskly on our doubtful journey/ "One word more of friendly advice," says Mr. Dark, settling himself comfortably in his corner of the carriage. "Take your sleep, William, whenever you feel that you can get it You won't find yourself in bed again till we get to Glasgow." [continued next week.] fouling. The origin of the words and music of Ibis famous song is thus described by M. de Lamartine: There was at this time (1792) a young officer of artillery in the garrison at Strasbourg. His name was Rouget de Lisle. He was born at Lous-le-Saulnier, in the Jura, a country of reveries and energy, as mountainous regions always are. This young man loved war as a soldier; revolution as a |thinker. By his verses and music he lightened the tediousness of the garrison. Generally sought on account of his noble talent as a musician and a poet, he became a familiar visitor at the house of an Asiatic*patriot, Dietrich, mayor of Strasbourg. The wife and daughters of Dietrich shared his enthusiasm for. patriotism and revolution. They loved the young officer. They inspired his heart, his poetry and his music; and, trusting to the early lispings of his genius, they were the first to execute his scarcely expressed thoughts It was in the winter of 1792 famine reigned at Strasbourg. The Dietrich family were poor, and their table was frugal, bat it was always hospitable to Rouget One day, when there was nothing on the board bat some ammunition, bread and a few slices of bam, Dietrich, looking at De Lisle with melancholy calmness, said to him: "Abundance is wanting at our banquet, but what matters that when neither enthusiasm is wanting at our civic feasts nor courage in the hearts of our soldiers ? I have still a bottle of wine left in my cellar; let it be brought up* and let us drink to liberty and our country. There will soon be a patriotic celebration at Strasbourg; may these last drops inspire De Lisle with one of those hymns which convey to the soul ofthe people the intoxication frdm which they proceed. The young girls applauded, brought in the wine, and filled the glasses of their aged father and the young officer until the liquor was exhausted. It was midnight The night was cold. De Lisle was in a dreamy state; his heart was touched; his head was heated. The eold overpowered him, and he tottered into his lonely room slowly, seeking inspiration now in his patriotic soul, now in his harpsichord ; sometimes composing the air before the words, and sometimes the words before the air, and so combining them in his thoughts that he himself did not know whether the notes or the verses came first, and that it waa impossible to separate the poetry from the music, or the sentiment from the expression. He sang all and set down nothing. Overpowered with the soblime inspiration. Be Lisle went to sleep on the harpsichord, and did notwake until day. He recolected the song of the previous night with a difficulty like that with which we recall the impression of a dream. ' He now set down the words and music, and ran with them to Dietrich, whom he found at work in the garden. Hie wife and daughters of the old patriot had not yet risen. Dietrich awakened them, and invited some friends who were as passionately fond of music as himself, and were capable of executing De Lisle's composition. His eldest daughter played the accompaniment while Rouget sung. At the first stanzas all faces turned pale; at the second tears ran down every cheek; and at the last all the madness of enthusiasm broke forth. Dietrich, his wife, his daugtere, and the young officer fell weeping into each other's arms. The hymn of the country was found. It was destined, alas! to be also the hymn of terror. A few months afterward the unfortunate Deitrich went to the scaffold to the sound of the very juwbb wmun n?u umu. their origin on his own hearth, in the heart of his friend and in the voices of his children. The Salutes op VraonnA.?Some seventy yean ago the Kanawha Valley was called the Lkfcg, because the elk and Buffalo came down to the salt springs and the valleys about them. The farmers of Greenbrier used to pad: their eon down to these salines, where there ware a fcw kettlee and where an inferior salt was made; but about 1815, William Tompkins came from Kentucky and built his furnace, and began to bdil the salt water on a large scale, right where his son is boiling it - * .s * _ _ ji now. 'J.M water was near tne sunace ana on the edgejof the river. The deeper they went, however, the purer wee the brine, tad they bored until they sunk the w^llSOO feet The tat ibel was irood, then the coal mines in less then half a mile were opined; but some yean ago, a fuel new and valuable waastrangely enough discovered : this was gas. Am they were boring a well, suddenly the augers thrown high the water came spouting up high above the surface, and there & was a great flow of gas. CoL Tompkins decided to save coal with gas, and he conducted it to hisfbrnaoe. .When he turned the stop-cock and the gas rushed in on the fire, a flame of thirty feet burst from the tall chimney, and for ten months he boiled the brine at an expense of three-fourths of a cent per bushel. Then just as suddenly as it began did the gas cease. S%ee then they have boiled the brine with ooal for a fuel The salt wells are very numerous, but it is very expensive to run a furnace, and the fturnaces are not many. The country around ' Maulden, where are tho most salt wells, reminded me somewhat of that around Syracuse, New York. , The water is pumped into cisterns, then into great cast iron pans, then into long wooden troughs with copper pipes through, them, and at last the brine deposits the most beautiful, and the ptarest salt in the world. The salt wells here are controlled by the Ohio Salt Company, which supplies aH the West The salt costs them at the wells about eighteen cents per bushel, or a little over one-third of a cent per pound. v The last of the salt wells is some three miles, this side of Charlestown, and when we leave >, the tall smoky chimneys behind we find ourselves in a very beantifbl, wide valley, with Charleetown nestling in its lap.?0. 0. Smith,' in Baltiviore Christian Advocate. ? ? . A Queer Live Work.?A man died recently in the Ruo-Quvier, in Paris, whohad* labored for more than fifty years on a work .on humpbacks. He was a wealthy,independent bachelor, witfi an iron oongtitation, and the singular man had sparbd'nb sacrifice, bad braved danger and fatigue to gather the innumerable observations he had gathered in his gigantic work.: When his heirs were looking for a will, they found his'immense manuscript which he had left. It comprises 2,000 sheets, with the most ?ritct drawings of innumerable humps, anj calculations and observations on the same. The man hasfaaveled all ovpr the world, through Europe^ Asia, Africa and . America; hpd been in Hmdostan and Japan, in Nubia and Abyssinia, just for the purpose t of studying the humpbacks of those countries. In the temperate zone, of Europe he found the'most of them. The most singular observation made by this eccentric explorer was the fact that the humps have a sort of connection with the surface of the country where they are found. So the humpbacks in the Pyrenees showed the angular, jagged shape of their mountains, while the humpbacks on -the coast showed on one side a gentle descent. In the humpbacks of the plains the humj& smooth down gradually on all sides. Storms and Wind.?The correspondent of the Charleston Courier, writing last week from Newberry, says: "We are informed that on last Thursday a gust of wind, accompanied with hail, arose in the region of Dutch Fork, and increased in volume til! it reached the neighborhood of Stony Battery, where it swept down quite a number of out-houses, tori up trees, destroyed orchards, corn, Ac. "We have also been mfoi-med of a moat singular occurrence. Some time last week a cur-' rent Of wind or heated aii passed over and through a four-acre ? eld of cotton in the neighborhood of Pomaria, from the effects of which in a few hours it all whitened and died, no life being left in it The same current, it is said, prostrated two pieces of corn, turning over one-half to the right and the other to tne left, the sections being divided by a fence, without doing-other injury." K % What a Soldier Did.?I learned Grammar, says William Cobbett, when I was a private soldier on the pay of sixpence a day. The edge of my berth, or that of my guardbed, was my seat to study in; my knapsack was my booktfise, and a bit of boawl lying in my laji was my writing?ts3Jlfi. P had no money to purchase cqndles or ml; in writing time it waa rarely that I could get any ligbt but tbat of fire,'and only my torn even of that To btiy a pen or sheet of paper, I was compelled to forego some portion of food, though in a state of half starvation. I had no moment of time that I could call my own; and I had to read and write amid the talking, laughing, singing, whistling and bawling of at least half a score of the most thoughtless of men; and, too, in boura of freedom from all control. And , I say, if I, under circumstances like these, could encounter and overcome the task, can there be, in the whole world, a youth who can find an excuse for the non-performance ? Look Sharp at Youb Five Dollar Bills.?A very ingenious trick has recently come to light, by which ten five dollar bills are manufactured out of nine, with but one 1 pasting to each of the manufactured notes, - " ?" ?a 1 * 1 ' and tnat in cunereni para ui coca uuk, ?uu each note minus one-tenth ofitselfl This loss is hardly perceptible with a casual glance, and it large numbers of these mutila* 1 lated ulRre in circulation. Be careftil. 1 The Department will not redeem a bill which bears evidence on its face that it has been tampered with. 19* A couple of neighbors became so inimi, cal that they would not speak to eacl) other; but one, having been converted ai a campi meeting, on seeing his former enemy, held out i his hand, saying, "How d'ye do, Kemp ? I am humble enough now to shake hands with a ~ dog." * .. . i 9