I can't say that I altogether sympathize with her myself; and, dear Ethie, I must acknowledge that it has more than once occurred to me that I did very wrong to meddle with Frank's first love affair.

He would be far happier now if it had been suffered to go on, for I suspect he has never entirely gotten over it; but it is too late now for regrets.

Nettie is his wife, and he must make the best of it." Then followed what seemed the secret of the Van Buren discomfort.

The bank in which most of Nettie's fortune was deposited had failed, leaving her with only the scanty income of five hundred dollars a year, a sum not sufficient to buy clothes, Mrs.Van Buren said.

But Richard did not notice this--his mind was only intent upon Frank's first love affair, which ought to have gone on.