Year: 1873

our sitting-room or on the piazza oppo- site, and pass an hour or two of the day or the evening with the daughter. l am more and more struck by the beauty,

 modesty, and intelligence of Miss Daw.

 You ask me why do not fall in love with her. will be frank, Jack: have thought of that. She is young. rich, ac- complished, uniting in herself more at- fractions, mental and personal, than I can recall in any girl of my acquaintance; but she lacks the something that would be necessary to inspire in me that kind of interest. Possessing this unknown quan- tity, a woman neither beautiful nor wealthy nor very young could bring me to her feet. But not Miss Daw. If we were shipwrecked together on Q desert is- land Jet me suggest tropical island, for 1t costs no more to be picturesque l would build her bamboo hut, would fetch her bread-fruit and cocoanuts, I would fry yams for her, would lure the ingenious turtle and make her nour1sh- ing soups, but wouldn't make love to her,-not under eighteen months. I would like to have her for 8 sister, that l might shield her and counsel her, and spend half my income on thread-laces and camers-hair shawls. (We are of the is- land now If such were not my feeling, there would still be an obstacle to my loving Miss Daw. A greater misfortune could scarcely befall me than to love her. Flemming, I am about to make a revela- tion that will astonish you. may be all wrong in my premises and consequently in my conclusions; but you shall judge.

 That night when I returned to my room after the croquet party at the Daws, and was thinking over the trivial events of the evening, l was suddenly impressed by the air of eager attention with which Miss Daw had followed my account of your ac- cident. think mentioned this to you. We'll, the next morning, as went to mail my letter, I overlook Miss Daw on the road to Rye, where the post-ofice is, and accompanied her tither and back, an hours walk. The conversation again turned on you, and again I remarked that look of interest which had lighted up her face the previous evening. Since then, I have seen Miss Daw perhaps ten times, perhaps oftener, and on each occasion I found that when was not speaking of you, or your sister, or some person or place associated with you, I was not hold ing her attention. She would be absent minded, her eyes would wander away from me to the sea, or to some distant object in the landscape; her fingers would play with the leaves of a book in a way that convinced me she was not listening. At these moments if I abruptly changed the theme,-I did it several times as an ex- pertinent, and dropped some remark about my friend Flemming, then the som- bre blue eyes would come back to me in- stantly.

 . Now, is not this the oldest thing in the world? No, not the oldest. The effect which you tell me was produced on you by my casual mention of an unknown girl swinging in a hammock, IS certainly as strange. You can conjecture how that passage in your letter of Friday startled me. Is it possible, then. that two peo- pie who have never met, and who are hundreds of miles apart, can exert mag netic influence on each other? l have read of such psychological phenomena, but never credited them. leave the solution of the problem to you. As for myself, all other things being favorable, it would be impossible for me to fall in love with a woman who listens to me only when I am talking of my friend!

 am not aware that any one IS paying marked attention to my fair neighbor. The lieutenant of the navy-he Is station ed at Rivermouth-sometim drops Tn of an evening, and sometimes the rector from Saltwater; the lieutenant the often CT. He was there last night. 1 should not be surprised if he had an eye to the heiress; but he is not formidable. Mis- tress Dsw carries a neat little spear of irony, and the honest lieutenant seems to have 8 particular facility for impaling himself on the point of 1t. He is not dan gerous, I should say; though have known a woman to satirize man for years, and marry him after all Decidedly, the low ly rector is not dangerous; yet, again, who has not seen Cloth of Frieze victorious in the lists where Cloth of Gold went down?

 As to the photograph. There is an ex- quisite ivorytype of Marjorie, in passe- partout, on the drawing-room mantle piece. It would be missed at once if talk en- would do anything reasonable for you, Jack; but I've no burning desire to be hauled up before the local justice of the peace, on charge of petty larceny.

 P. S.-Enclosed is 8 spray of migno- nette, which I advise you to treat tender ly. Yes, we talked of you again last night, as usual. It is becoming little dreary for me.

 E;!,oard Delaney to John FlenlminJ.