by word of mouth, that Miss Palmley bade him say she should not part with what was hers, and wondered at his boldness in troubling her.
"Jack was much affronted at this, and determined te go for his letters himself. He chose a time when he knew she was at home, and knocked and went in without much ceremony; for though Harriet was so high and mighty, Jack had small respect for her aunt, Mrs. Palmley, whose little child had been his boot- cleaner in earlier days. Harriet was in the room, this being the first time they had met since she had jilted him. He asked for his letters with a stern and bitter look at her.
“ At first she said he might have them for all that she cared, and took them out of the bureau where she kept them. Then she glanced over the outside one of the packet, and, suddenly altering her mind, she told him shortly that his request was a silly one, and slipped the letters into her aunt’s work-box, which stood open on the table, locking it, and saying with a bantering laugh that of course she thought it best to keep ’em, since they might be useful to produce as evidence that she had good cause for declining to marry him.
“He blazed up hot. ‘Give me those letters !’ he said. ‘They are mine!’
"'No, they are not,’ she replied; ‘they are mine.’
“'Whos’ever they are I want them back,’ says he.
'I don’t want to be made sport of for my penmanship: you’ve another young man now! He has your confidence, and you pour all your tales into his ear. You'll be showing them to him!’
“'Perhaps,’ said my lady Harriet, with calm coolness, like the heartless woman that she was,
“Her manner so maddened him that he made a step towards the work-box, but she snatched it up,
