One day Mrs.Worse, who usually occupied herself half the morning with her paper, read out to her son that Pastor Martens had been nominated as clergyman in the town.
"Just fancy! So they are coming westward again!" ejaculated Mrs.Worse.
"I should like to know how little Madeleine has got on in married life," sighed the old woman, who knew but too well the uncertainty which marriage brings with it.

The news awoke many painful recollections in Worse's breast, and he paced up and down in his office for a long time, before he could bring himself to begin upon the foreign post, which lay in a formidable packet on his desk.
Among the letters there was one from Barnett Brothers in Paris; he knew the handwriting, but the office stamp was missing.

As he opened it, it struck him that it was longer than usual.

He turned it over hastily.
What was this?
Rachel Carman's signature stood at the foot of the letter! Jacob Worse read as follows:-- "DEAR MR.

WORSE, "As I sit down to write to you, and thus carry out a long-formed resolution, I feel so overcome by emotion, that I find it difficult to control myself sufficiently, to express my thoughts _verbatim_.