MISADVENTURES OF A LOVER. 159 



On my return home, I found the friend who had introduced me 

 to Miss Jackson waiting for me. I mentioned to him what had 

 occurred, and the determination to which I had come to prosecute 

 my unknown assailant. My friend was very inquisitive to know who 

 had thus assaulted me, and what could have prompted the fellow to 

 such a step. I told him again as I had told him before, though he 

 seemed to think I rather wanted the will than the power that I 

 could give him no information on either head. 



" Can you not,'' said he, " can you not, at any rate, give me some 

 description of the personal appearance of your assailant ? 



I answered in the affirmative. 



" Well, let me hear all you can communicate on the subject." 



I described the brute as well as I could. 



"Oh! I know now who it is! It is Mr. Jackson !" exclaimed he> 

 after a few moment's hesitation. 



" Mr. Jackson ! Impossible ! Did you not tell me that Miss Jack- 

 son's father was dead, and that she never had a brother?'' 



" It is another Mr. Jackson," said my friend ; " one who lives in 

 the same street. Do you not recollect having seen a Mrs. Jackson, 

 a beautiful woman, among those present at Miss Jackson's mother's 

 house ? Her husband would have been present also, but was out of 

 town that day." 



I did recollect having seen a newly married lady at Mrs. Jack- 

 son's on the evening in question. I mentioned this to my friend. 



" But what possible ground of offence could you have given to 

 her husband ?'' enquired my friend. 



" None in the world that I know of,'' answered I. "I never be- 

 fore saw the man in my life : his wife I have never seen before or 

 since that evening." 



" The matter is certainly involved in much mystery. Did he say 

 nothing when committing the assault that could have led you to infer 

 the cause of his displeasure ?" 



II Nothing further than asking me whether a letter he held in his 

 hand was in my hand writing, which I confessed it was. I believe 

 he also muttered something about no man's making an attempt to 

 seduce his wife with impunity." 



" What ! it is not possible that you could have meditated any 

 thing of the kind ?'' said rny friend, in a tone indicative of surprise. 



" Never, never ; and I had thought that you were the last man in 

 the world that could have Conceived the bare possibility of such a 

 thing." 



" Did you ever write his wife at all ; for if you did, however inno- 

 cently, a jealous husband would construe an epistle from a man to his 

 wife into something bad ? Do you not know, as Shakspeare says, that 



' Trifles, light as air, 

 Are to the jealous confirmations strong 

 As proofs of holy writ'" 



" I never in my life penned a syllable to his or any other person's 

 wife ; but I will confess to you that I did write Miss Jackson, to whom 

 you introduced me ; and, from the hasty glance I gave the letter my 



