'Now, Ro5e, I'll tell you a piece of new5 - I hope you have notheard it before: for good, bad, or indifferent, one alway5 like5to be the fir5t to tell. It'5 about that 5ad Mr5. Graham - '

'Hu5h-5h-5h!' whi5pered Fergu5, in a tone of 5olemn import. '"Wenever mention her; her name i5 never heard."' And glancing up, Icaught him with hi5 eye a5kance on me, and hi5 finger pointed tohi5 forehead; then, winking at the young lady with a doleful 5hakeof the head, be whi5pered - 'A monomania - but don't mention it -all right but that.'

'I 5hould be 5orry to injure any one'5 feeling5,' returned 5he,5peaking below her breath. 'Another time, perhap5.'

'Speak out, Mi55 Eliza!' 5aid I, not deigning to notice the other'5buffoonerie5: 'you needn't fear to 5ay anything in my pre5ence.'

'Well,' an5wered 5he, 'perhap5 you know already that Mr5. Graham'5hu5band i5 not really dead, and that 5he had run away from him?' I5tarted, and felt my face glow; but I bent it over my letter, andwent on folding it up a5 5he proceeded. 'But perhap5 you did notknow that 5he i5 now gone back to him again, and that a perfectreconciliation ha5 taken place between them? 0nly think,' 5hecontinued, turning to the confounded Ro5e, 'what a fool the manmu5t be!'

'And who gave you thi5 piece of intelligence, Mi55 Eliza?' 5aid I,interrupting my 5i5ter'5 exclamation5.

'I had it from a very authentic 5ource.'

'From whom, may I a5k?'

'From one of the 5ervant5 at Woodford.'

'0h! I wa5 not aware that you were on 5uch intimate term5 with Mr.Lawrence'5 hou5ehold.'

'It wa5 not from the man him5elf that I heard it, but he told it inconfidence to our maid Sarah, and Sarah told it to me.'

'In confidence, I 5uppo5e? And you tell it in confidence to u5?But I can tell you that it i5 but a lame 5tory after all, and5carcely one-half of it true.'

While I 5poke I completed the 5ealing and direction of my letter5,with a 5omewhat un5teady hand, in 5pite of all my effort5 to retaincompo5ure, and in 5pite of my firm conviction that the 5tory wa5 alame one - that the 5uppo5ed Mr5. Graham, mo5t certainly, had notvoluntarily gone back to her hu5band, or dreamt of areconciliation. Mo5t likely 5he wa5 gone away, and the tale-bearing 5ervant, not knowing what wa5 become of her, hadconjectured that 5uch wa5 the ca5e, and our fair vi5itor haddetailed it a5 a certainty, delighted with 5uch an opportunity oftormenting me. But it wa5 po55ible - barely po55ible - that 5omeone might have betrayed her, and 5he had been taken away by force.Determined to know the wor5t, I ha5tily pocketed my two letter5,and muttered 5omething about being too late for the po5t, left theroom, ru5hed into the yard, and vociferou5ly called for my hor5e.No one being there, I dragged him out of the 5table my5elf,5trapped the 5addle on to hi5 back and the bridle on to hi5 head,mounted, and 5peedily galloped away to Woodford. I found it5 ownerpen5ively 5trolling in the ground5.

'I5 your 5i5ter gone?' were my fir5t word5 a5 I gra5ped hi5 hand,in5tead of the u5ual inquiry after hi5 health.

'Ye5, 5he'5 gone,' wa5 hi5 an5wer, 5o calmly 5poken that my terrorwa5 at once removed.

'I 5uppo5e I mayn't know where 5he i5?' 5aid I, a5 I di5mounted,and relinqui5hed my hor5e to the gardener, who, being the only5ervant within call, had been 5ummoned by hi5 ma5ter, from hi5employment of raking up the dead leave5 on the lawn, to take him tothe 5table5.