“And now, dear Fanny!  If our ways in life must part, let us hold each other at least in kind remembrance.  It will ever grieve me to think that our meeting occasioned a ripple to disturb the tranquil surface of your feelings.  I could not help loving you—­and for that I am not responsible.  Alas! that, in loving, I should bring pain to the heart of the beloved one.

“But why say more?  Why trouble your spirit by revealing the disturbance of mine?  Heaven bless you and keep you, Fanny; and may your sky be ever bathed in sunshine!  I leave my destiny in your hands, and pray for strength to bear the worst.

Adieu. 
L. L.”

There was a flitting smile on the lips of the young Englishman, as he folded and sealed this letter, and a look of assurance on his face, that little accorded with the words he had just written.  Again he took up his pen and wrote—­

“My dear D. C. L.:—­Faithful as ever you have proved in this affair, which is growing rather too complicated, and beginning to involve too many interests.  Miss Markland is fretting sadly under the injunction of secresy, and says that I must release her from the obligation not to mention my hasty return from the South.  And so I have written to her, that she may divulge the fact to her mother.  You start, and I hear you say—­’Is the man mad?’ No, not mad, my friend; or, if mad, with a method in his madness.  Fanny will not tell her mother.  Trust me for that.  The consequences I have clearly set forth—­probable ruin to my prospects, and an eternal separation between us.  Do you think she will choose this alternative?  Not she.  ‘Imprudent man!  To risk so much for a pretty face!’ I hear you exclaim.  Not all for a pretty face, my grave friend.  The alliance, if it can be made, is a good one.  Markland, as far as I can learn, is as rich as a Jew; he has a bold, suggestive mind, a large share of enthusiasm, and is, take him all in all, just the man we want actively interested in our scheme.  Brainard, he writes me, has backed out.  I don’t like that; and I like still less the reason assigned for his doing so.  ’A foolish report that you were seen in the city some days after your departure for the South, has disturbed his confidence, and he positively refuses to be a partner in the arrangement.’  That looks bad; doesn’t it?  Markland seems not to have the slightest suspicion, and says that he will take the whole forty thousand interest himself, if necessary.  He was going, immediately, to New York, to consult with Mr. Fenwick.  A good move.  Fenwick understands himself thoroughly, and will manage our gentleman.

“Get the enclosed safely into the hands of Fanny, and with as little delay as possible.  I am growing rather nervous about the matter.  Be very discreet.  The slightest error might ruin all.  If possible, manage to come in contact with Brainard, and hear how he talks of me, and of our enterprise.  You will know how to neutralize any gratuitous assertions he may feel inclined to make.  Also get, by some means, access to Mr. Markland.  I want your close observation in this quarter.  Write me, promptly and fully, and, for the present, direct to me here.  I shall proceed no farther for the present.