ADELAIDE PROCTER. 215 cliosen to correspond with him under an assumed name, because she feared, had she used her own, and her poem not been such as he desired, that he would either have accepted it for friendship's sake, or have found it very painful to refuse. It was more than a year before the facts became known to him. Then, during the month of December, when going to dine with Barry Cornwall, he carried with him an early proof of the Christmas number of Household Words, entitled " The Seven Poor Travelers." As he laid it down upon the parlor table before the assem- bled family, he remarked that it contained an exceedingly pretty poem by a certain Miss Mary Berwick. The next day he was informed that Miss Berwick and Miss Procter were one, and shortly afterward she had the happiness of receiving the following delightful letter from her editor: " My dear Miss Procter, you have given me a new sensation. I did suppose that nothing in this singular world could surprise me, but you have done it. " You will believe my congratulations on the delicacy and talent of your writing to be sincere. From the first, I have always had an especial interest in that Miss Berwick, and have over and over again questioned Wills about her. I suppose he has gone on gradually building up an imaginary structure of life and adventure for her, but he has given me the strangest information ! Only yesterday week, when we were 'making up' 'The Poor Travelers,' I said to him, ' Wills, have you got that Miss Berwick's proof back, of the little sailor's song ? ' 'No,' he said. 'Well, but why not?' I asked him. ' Why, you know,' he answered, ' as I have often told you before, she don't live at the place to which her letters are addressed, and so there's always difficulty and delay in communicating with her.' ' Do you know what age she is ? ' I said. Here he looked unfathomably profound, and returned, ' Rather advanced in life.' ' You said she
