husband deserted and left her penniless, both mother and daughter returned to New-York and opened a milliner's shop: the mother soon after died. It was said that Paulina moved to Philadelphia; but, though unfavourable reports reached Essex concerning her, nothing was certainly known.
In the meantime, save two or three short letters by private opportunities (for our friends could not afford the luxury of post intercourse), the sisters heard nothing from Harry till the following letter arrived.
"Dear Susan—My prospects, since the breakup last spring, are much improved; but particulars in my next. All I want to know is, whether you will share my lot with me? Pray write by return of post, and believe me now, as you well know I have ever been, though I never put it into words before, your friend and true lover,
"Harry Aikin.
"P. S.—I know, dear Susan, you are not a person to take or refuse a husband for any thing separate from himself; but I may mislead you by what I said above. I am still what the world calls a poor man—particulars in my next."
Susan's first sensations on reading Harry's letter were those of perfect and unlimited happiness. "I always felt," she said to Charlotte, "as if I knew he loved me; and now I wonder I let Adeline's story trouble me for one moment."
Again and again the sisters read over Harry's letter; Charlotte seeming, in her own quiet way,
