1(JO MISADVENTURES OP A LOVER. 



assailant held in his hand, it is the identical one I addressed to her 

 How he came by that letter is to me as mysterious as any of the 

 countless incomprehensibilities in nature." 



" What was the nature of your note to Miss Jackson, if it be fair 

 to ask such a question ?" said my friend. 



" It was written in very general terms. I merely, as I suppose is 

 common in all correspondence between the sexes, professed a fervent, 

 an immutable and eternal attachment to her, an attachment formed 

 from what I had seen of her on the evening and at the party referred 

 to, and concluded by urgently begging the favour of a meeting with 

 her, next afternoon, at a given hour, at Hyde Park Corner.'' 



" I have it ! I have it !" exclaimed my friend, Archimedes like. 

 " The letter you intended for Miss Jackson has by mistake gone to 

 Mrs. Jackson ; and no wonder that such an epistle should have kindled 

 suspicions in the husband's breast : no wonder that he chastised you 

 as he did." 



The hypothesis struck me as probable, though I could not exactly 

 see how the missending of the letter should have occurred. 



" I will go to Mr. Jackson's," said my friend, " and learn all the 

 particulars from him." 



He departed that moment : he had not far to go; he returned in 

 an hour afterwards, and informed me his conjecture was quite right, 

 and that he learned from Mr. J. the whole details of the awkward 

 business. 



The story maybe told in a few words. The two Jacksons, as 

 formerly mentioned, resided in the same street. The right house 

 had no brass plate, with the name inscribed, on the door; the wrong 

 one had. Being ignorant of the number of the right house, I could 

 not of course write it on the back of my letter. The postman, in 

 these circumstances, very naturally delivered the letter at the wrong 

 place. I scrawl a wretched indistinct hand ; so that when the letter 

 arrived Miss was read for Mrs. The latter lady, probably 'wishing 

 to pass, in the estimation of her husband, for a woman of surpassing 

 rectitude, showed him my letter, instead of consigning it as she ought 

 to the flames. 



"Why, Charlotte, my dear," said the husband, " if 'ever villain 

 deserved chastisement, this amorous rascal does. You only do as I 

 desire you, and zounds ! if I don't give it him in style." 



Mrs. Jackson, being newly married, expressed her readiness to do 

 any thing her husband desired her. " Augustus," said she, " you 

 know, dear, your will is always a law with me." 



" Well," says he, " as Solomon enjoins us to answer a fool accord- 

 ing to his folly, you shall answer this villain according to his villany. 

 You will immediately write him, declaring that he made an indeli- 

 ble impression on your heart when you saw him at the party to which 

 he refers, and acquiescing in his proposal for a meeting at Hyde Park 

 Corner." 



She did as she was bid. I, never having seen Miss Jackson's 

 hand-writing, was of course easily deceived. I was in perfect rap- 

 tures with the supposed success of my proposal for a meeting. The 

 reader is already informed how transitory my joy was. I never saw 



