Chapter 23
LETTER FROM ALFRED TO CAROLINE. "MY DEAR CAROLINE, "I am going to surprise you--I know it is the most imprudent thing a story-teller can do to give notice or promise of a surprise; but you see, I have such confidence at this moment in my fact, that I hazard this imprudence--Whom do you think I have seen? Guess--guess all round the breakfast-table--father, mother, Caroline, Rosamond--I defy you all--ay, Rosamond, even you, with all your capacity for romance; the romance of real life is beyond all other romances--its coincidences beyond the combinations of the most inventive fancy--even of yours, Rosamond--Granted--go on--Patience, ladies, if you please, and don't turn over the page, or glance to the end of my letter to satisfy your curiosity, but read fairly on, says my father. "You reme
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