“It was my fortune, or misfortune, to call upon my young friend just at this time.  I was told that she was in her chamber; and, as our intimacy was very great, I took a liberty we were in the habit of taking with each other, and went up to her, unannounced.  My gentle tap at her door not being answered, I opened it and went in.  As I have just described her, thus I found her.  My entrance but partially restored her self-command.  She stared wildly at me, stretched out her hands, and made an effort to speak.  I sprang toward her, and she fell forward against my bosom, with a deep groan that made me shudder.  Thus she lay for nearly five minutes as still as a statue.  Then a slight quiver ran through her frame, which was followed by a gush of tears.  For a long time she continued weeping and sobbing, but at length grew calmer.  All this time I could see an open letter lying upon the floor, which I doubted not was the caused of this distressing scene.  When the self-command of Harriet was at last restored, and she began to reflect upon the consequences likely to flow from another’s witnessing the wild agitation she had displayed, a shade of anxious confusion passed over her face.  At this moment her eye rested upon the fatal letter, which she caught up eagerly and concealed.  I asked no question, nor made any remarks.  She looked at me steadily for a moment, and then let her eyes fall thoughtfully to the floor.

“‘You are surprised and confounded, no doubt,’ she at length said, mournfully, ’at what you have seen.  Pardon me if I refrain from mentioning the cause.  It is one of which I cannot speak.’

“I begged her not to reveal the cause of her affliction, if to do so were at all in violation of what she deemed right; but to accept my deepest sympathies, and to put it in my power, if that were possible, to mitigate, in some degree, the pain of mind she was suffering.

“‘That you cannot do,’ said she.  ’It is beyond the reach of human aid.’

“‘May Heaven, then, give you strength to bear it,’ I returned, with emotion.

“‘Heaven only can,’ she replied in a subdued voice.

“I could say no more, for my ignorance of the cause of her distress put it out of my power to offer consolation, more particularly as it was her expressed wish that I should remain in ignorance.  I staid an hour with her, during which time I learned that her husband had been suddenly called to New York on business.  It was one of the unhappiest hours I ever spent in my life.  On going away, I could not help recalling the conversation I had once held with Sarah Corbin about Mr. Eaverson, nor help feeling that there might be too much truth in her declarations that she believed him to be a man without honour or virtue.  There was no doubt in my mind that Harriet’s distress was in some way connected with her husband’s absence, and it occurred to me that the letter I had seen upon the floor, and which she concealed so eagerly, might not have been intended for her eyes, and might contain things which for her to know would be fatal to her peace through life.  In this, my conjectures were of course true.