long time and that on his return you have not had him here once even to a dinner and that now he has gone away i cannot help being very much surprised pardon me if i speak too plainly mr s eyes were turned affectionately upon the speaker i will pardon you almost anything he said gently but if this is your fault i will not pardon you replied the girl with the freedom she was accustomed to use toward him do you know what are abroad it is said that have taken his place here that i am crowding him out of his position such gossip is not pleasant to me i assure you the was evidently much disturbed by this remarkable statement while mrs uneasily on her side of the table afraid to say anything but wishing heartily that her daughter would select some other topic for conversation i do not see how we can keep silly people from talking replied mr after a pause he had been wondering who were the guilty parties and thinking he would make the village too warm for them if he could discover their identity the public has nothing to do with my private affairs at seventy and i heartily wish it would attend to its own business he said this in his ordinary tone but felt that he was very much in earnest i have only one thing to say she remarked if it is true that i am creating a coldness on your part toward any of your relations i wish to go away at once this was startling enough to make mrs drop a plate that she was filling with fruit while some tea that mr was about to convey to his mouth upon the table cloth you will compel me said mr as soon as he could command his voice to say things in reference to my nephew that i had rather keep to myself if i have not invited him here it is on account of matters i have learned which are not to his credit mrs growing more and more apprehensive touched the foot of her daughter under the table but the message though thoroughly understood had no effect had never been much under her mother s control and of late years she had acted quite of her she answered the last speaker as boldly as if there were not fifty years difference in their ages of course i do not know what you refer to she said but i should think it a poor way to improve him if he needs it to send him forth again into the world with no one to advise or direct his course had you brought him here he might have found influences that would have him and nephew mr could not refrain from looking at with an expression that she could not mistake she knew instantly that he was aware of the visit that had paid to her room with this knowledge came the certainty that he had sent his nephew away on account of it she had learned more than she expected and not caring to the conversation in the presence of her mother she made no further reference to the matter it being now morally certain that her lover had been forced into the action he had taken she determined to write to him and assure him of her sympathy and continued devotion the first thing was to ascertain his address faithful to the utmost discovered an opinion in the village that was in new york knew that a letter addressed to the general delivery in that city would be very unlikely to reach its destination when she was nearly in despair learned another fact which seemed of more account she discovered that s friend was now employed at the new york office of the company believed he would be almost certain to know her lover s whereabouts filled with new hope wrote a letter without delay telling him to direct his answer to an assumed name in care of s sister mrs who lived in the village of believing that she had entered upon what would prove a solution of the great was in the highest spirits she had known for weeks when she love at seventy met mr at table that day she could hardly conceal her gaiety the maker of instruments was not however to be so easily as the young girl imagined the who was practically his own had agreed to let him see all of the mail that left the village there were only two bags each day one closing at two o clock in the afternoon and the other at nine in the evening aside from the letters of the company the correspondence that went through the office was trivial and it required but a few moments for mr to examine it he knew that would do her best to learn s address and he had no intention that she should succeed in communicating with him here s a letter that may interest you said on the evening of the day when had suddenly appeared so radiant took it eagerly in his hand yes it was in s handwriting it was not addressed to his nephew however but to esq care company no third st new york the name was wholly to him and he turned in an inquiring manner to the do you t this gentleman he asked mr why yes was the answer he is a young fellow whom your nephew and kept at the hotel here for some time he was hired finally at the works and at last was sent to the head office that looks sufficiently suspicious said mr and nephew with a bright gleam in his eye to justify me in getting at the contents of this envelope at once he took up a paper which lay on the desk but the turned livid 