The Letter of Credit

"Miss Warner has added another pure and beautiful picture to the gallery that has given so much pleasure to such great numbers. All her pictures are bright and warm with the blessedness of true love and true religion. We do not wonder that they receive so wide a welcome, and we wish sincerely that only such stories were ever written."--N. Y. Observer.

II. MY DESIRE. 12mo. $1.75.

"Miss Warner possesses in a remarkable degree the power of vividly describing New England village life, the power of making her village people walk and talk for the benefit of her readers in all the freshness of their clear-cut originality. She has an ample fund of humor, a keen sense of the ridiculous, and a rare faculty of painting homely truths in homely but singularly felicitous phrases."--Philadelphia Times.

III. THE LETTER OF CREDIT. 12mo. $1.75.

IV. PINE NEEDLES. A Tale. 12mo. $1.50.

V. THE OLD HELMET. A Tale. 12mo. $2.25.

VI. MELBOURNE HOUSE. A Tale. 12mo. $2.00.

VII. THE KING'S PEOPLE. 5 vols. $7.00.

VIII. THE SAY AND DO SERIES. 6 vols. $7.50.

IX. A STORY OF SMALL BEGINNINGS. 4 vols. $5.00.

By Miss Anna Warner.

THE BLUE FLAG AND THE CLOTH OF GOLD $1.25

STORIES OF VINEGAR HILL 3 vols. 3.00

ELLEN MONTGOMERY'S BOOKSHELF 5 vols. 5.00

LITTLE JACK'S FOUR LESSONS 2.50

ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS,

NEW YORK.

THE

LETTER OF CREDIT.

BY THE AUTHOR OF

"THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD."

...."The bewildering masquerade of life, Where strangers walk as friends, and friends as strangers." LONGFELLOW.

NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS,

530 BROADWAY. 1882.

Copyright, 1881, BY ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS.

CAMBRIDGE: PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON.

ST. JOHNLAND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, SUFFOLK CO., N. Y.

_NOTE.

The following story, like its predecessors, "The End of a Coil," "My Desire," and "Diana," is a record of facts. For the characters and the coloring, of course, I am responsible; but the turns of the story, even in detail, are almost all utterly true.

S. W.

Martlaer's Rock, Sept. 12, 1881_.

CONTENTS.

CHAP.

I. THE LETTER

II. MOVING

III. JANE STREET

IV. A VISITER

V. PRIVATE TUITION

VI. A LEGACY

VII. MENTAL PHILOSOPHY

VIII. STATEN ISLAND

IX. FORT WASHINGTON

X. L'HOMME PROPOSE

XI. MRS. BUSBY

XII. MRS. BUSBY'S HOUSE

XIII. NOT DRESSED

XIV. IN SECLUSION

XV. MRS. MOWBRAY

XVI. SCHOOL

XVII. BAGS AND BIBLES

XVIII. FLINT AND STEEL

XIX. A NEW DEPARTURE

XX. STOCKINGS

XXI. EDUCATION

XXII. A CHANGE

XXIII. TANFIELD

XXIV. THE PURCELLS

XXV. ROTHA'S REFUGE

XXVI. ROTHA'S WORK

XXVII. INQUIRIES

XXVIII. DISCOVERIES

XXIX. PERPLEXITIES

XXX. DOWN HILL

XXXI. DISCUSSIONS

XXXII. END OF SCHOOL TERM

THE LETTER OF CREDIT.

CHAPTER I.

THE LETTER.

"Mother, I wonder how people do, when they are going to write a book?"

"Do?" repeated her mother.

"Yes. I wonder how they begin."

"I suppose they have something to tell; and then they tell it," said simple Mrs. Carpenter.

"No, no, but I mean a story."

"What story have you got there?"

The mother was shelling peas; the daughter, a girl of twelve years old perhaps, was sitting on the floor at her feet, with an octavo volume in her lap. The floor was clean enough to sit upon; clean enough almost to eat off; it was the floor of the kitchen of a country farmhouse.

"This is the 'Talisman,'" the girl answered her mother's question. "O mother, when I am old enough, I should like to write stories!"

"Why?"

"I should think it would be so nice. Why, mother, one could imagine oneself anything."

"Could you?" said her mother. "I never imagined myself anything but what I was."