you, sir?"

"Dear Mrs. Dodd," said Alfred, "of course you may. I should indeed be
ungrateful if I could not wait a post for that. May I write to my father
here?" added he, naively.

Mrs. Dodd smiled, furnished him with writing materials, and left him,
with a polite excuse.


"ALBION VILLA, _September 29._

"MY DEAR FATHER,--You are too thorough a man of the world, and too well
versed in human nature, to be surprised at hearing that I, so long
invulnerable, have at last formed a devoted attachment to one whose
beauty, goodness, and accomplishments I will not now enlarge upon; they
are indescribable, and you will very soon see them and judge for
yourself. The attachment, though short in weeks and months, has been a
very long one in hopes, and fears, and devotion. I should have told you
of it before you left, but in truth I had no idea I was so near the goal
of all my earthly hopes; there were many difficulties: but these have
just cleared away almost miraculously, and nothing now is wanting to my
happiness but your consent. It would be affectation, or worse, in me to
doubt that you will grant it. But, in a matter so delicate, I venture to
ask you for something more: the mother of my ever and only beloved Julia
is a lady of high breeding and sentiments: she will not let her daughter
enter any family without a cordial invitation from its head. Indeed she
has just told me so. I ask, therefore, not your bare consent, of which I
am sure, since my happiness for life depends on it, but a consent so
gracefully worded--and who can do this better than you?--as to gratify