feel and do for her."

"Pshaw!"

"Well, let it then be pshaw! I had read that letter this very morning, and
carelessly left it on my table. This letter Mr. Dodge, in his undying
desire to lay everything before the public, as becomes his high vocation,
and as in duty bound, has read; and misconstruing some of the phrases, as
will sometimes happen to a zealous circulator of news, he has drawn the
conclusion that I am to be made a happy woman as soon as we reach America,
by being converted from Miss Eve Effingham into Mrs. John Effingham."

"Impossible! No man can be such a fool, or quite so great a miscreant!"

"I should rather think, my child," added the milder father, "that
injustice has been done Mr. Dodge. No person, in the least approximating
to the station of a gentleman, could even think of an act so base as this
you mention."

"Oh! if this be all your objection to the tale," observed the cousin, "I
am ready to swear to its truth. But Eve has caught a little of Captain
Truck's spirit, of mystifying, and is determined to make a character by a
bold stroke in the beginning. She is clever, and in time may rise to be
a quiz."

"Thank you for the compliment, cousin Jack, which, however, I am forced to
disclaim, as I never was more serious in my life. That the letter was
read, Nanny, who is truth itself, affirms she saw. That Mr. Dodge has
since been industriously circulating the report of my great good fortune,
she has heard from the mate, who had it from the highest source of