MODERN CONSTANCY. 86 



" Frank !" 



" Its true, Fanny." 



Fanny was half vexed, and yet half relieved. She was a 

 little mortified that Frank should have anticipated her when 

 she was just beginning to feel conscience-stricken at her 

 desertion of him. 



" You look grave, coz, are you sorry I should find a wife ? 

 Well, don't be alarmed, I didn't say she was my wife. Come, 

 it is a story in your own line, Fanny, full of romance." 



And the hardy sailor drew Fanny towards him, and held 

 both her hands, while he told her, how he had found an " out- 

 landish body," waiting for a passage to America, where she 

 expected to meet her husband, — how he had taken care of the 

 poor pining creature on her passage, — how he had saved her 

 from being swept overboard during a gale of wind, — how she 

 had found in New York a letter from her husband directing her 

 to repair to Millville, where he would join her, — and how 

 Frank had escorted her to the village. " So you see, cousin 

 Fan, I have brought home a wife, but not for myself;" and 

 Frank, mistaking the cause of Fanny's disquieted look, kissed 

 her fondly ere he released her hands. 



Poor Fanny ! she little knew how completely Frank's story 

 was destined to annihilate her fairy fabric of hope. While the 

 gay seaman was recounting his tale in the quiet parlor of the 



