The stranger declared her utter inability to comply with such a request. "When I believed myself unheard," she cried, "musick, I imagined, might make me, for a few moments, forget my distresses: but an expected performance—a prepared exhibition!—pardon me!—I have neither spirits nor powers for such an attempt!"

Her voice spoke grief, her look, apprehension; yet her manner so completely announced decision, that, unopposed even by a word, she remounted the stairs to her chamber.

She was, there, surprised by the sight of a sealed packet upon her table, directed, "For L. S. at her leisure."

She opened it, and found ten bank notes, of ten pounds each.

A momentary hope which she had indulged, that this letter, by some accidental conveyance, had reached her from abroad, was now changed into the most unpleasant perplexity: such a donation could not come from any of the females