A SURPRISE FOR MRS.

SCOTT.
"Will ye gie me my watch or no ?" exclaimed Rose, growing impatient of the whispered colloquy between the jeweller and the policeman in plain clothes, although she was quite unsuspicious of its subject.
"Here it is, madam," said the jeweller, with the utmost politeness, as he came and placed the watch in her hand.
She attached it to her chain and then left the shop.
The policeman sauntered carelessly toward the door and kept his eye covertly upon her.
She got into a four-wheeled cab and drove off.
The policeman hailed a "Hansom," sprang into it, and directed the driver to keep the first cab in sight and follow it to its destination.
Rose, as it was now late in the afternoon, and she was longing for her turbot, green-turtle soup, and roast pheasants and champagne, drove directly home.
Her housekeeper met her at the door with good news.
"A letter from the master, ma'am.

The postman brought it soon after you left home," she said, putting another "drop" letter in the hand of her mistress.
"Is dinner ready ?" inquired Rose, who was more interested in her meals than in her lover.
"Just ready, ma'am," replied the housekeeper.
"Put it on the table directly, then," said Rose, as she ran up stairs to her own room.
She threw herself into a chair and opened the letter to read it, at her ease.
It was without date and very short.

It only informed her that the writer was still detained by "circumstances beyond his control," and enjoined her to wait patiently in her house on Westminster Road, until she should see him.
It was also without signature.
"And there's nae money in it.

I dinna ken why he should write to me at a', if he will send me nae money," was the angry comment of Rose, as she impatiently threw the letter into the fire.
Her "improved" circumstances had not taught the peasant girl any refinement of manners.