indifferent to his marked attentions. I was the last to believe that
Miss Grosvenor could so lose her self-respect and standing, as to look
upon a poor professor, who gains his bread by his own exertions, as a
favored competitor for her hand, and, it was not until I saw with my own
eyes, that I could credit what I had heard. I was satisfied in time,
that his rapt admiration as he gazed upon her, was something more than
enthusiasm that she had excelled even his most ardent expectations; and
the expression of her beautiful face, as she concluded, might have been
the envy of a greater than the Signor. We dismissed the Signor, but he
still continued his visits, under the plea that it was his custom to
give a few additional lessons at the close of a course, and if he might
be allowed, he should consider it a valuable acquisition to his own
musical powers, to continue for a time his exercises under Miss
Grosvenor's superior talent."

As Mrs. Santon paused, Delwood, in a state of frenzy, exclaimed,--

"It cannot be! I will never believe that she is false to me, even though
she should declare to me with her own lips, that another's claims upon
her affections were paramount to my own! Excuse me, madam, but I think
there must be some dreadful misunderstanding in regard to the facts
which you have stated. No! I would scorn myself if I had a doubt of her
innocence! and if such a thing might be possible, I would die rather
than be forced to believe it! I will tell her this very day what I have
heard, but I will not degrade myself, or forfeit her trust, by asking
her if it can be so!"

"Be calm, my dear friend," said Mrs. Santon; "compose yourself, I pray
you, and take my advice in the matter. Say nothing of what you have
heard to any one, but come here to-morrow morning at ten, when the