`` I 'm going to confess , Helen . ` Open confession is good for the soul , ' you know , and I shall treat myself to a good dose while the mood is on . `` You know , of course , that I was once engaged to Miles Lesley . You also know that that engagement was broken last autumn for unexplained reasons . Well , I will tell you all about it and then mail this letter speedily , before I change my mind . `` It is over a year now since Miles and I first became engaged . As you are aware , his family is wealthy , and noted for its exclusiveness . I was a poor school teacher , and you may imagine with what horror his relatives received the news of Miles 's attentions to one whom they considered his inferior . Now that I have thought the whole matter over calmly , I scarcely blame them . It must be hard for aristocratic parents who have lavished every care upon a son , and cherished for him the highest hopes , when he turns from the women of his own order to one considered beneath him in station . But I did not view the subject in this light then ; and instead of declining his attentions , as I perhaps should have done , I encouraged them -- I loved him so dearly , Nell ! -- and in spite of family opposition , Miles soon openly declared his attachment . `` When his parents found they could not change his purpose , their affection for him forced them into outward acquiescence , but their reluctant condescension was gall and wormwood to me . I saw things only from my own point of view , and was keenly sensitive to their politely concealed disapprobation , and my offended vanity found its victim in Miles . I belonged to the class who admit and resent slights , instead of ignoring them , as do the higher bred , and I thought he would not see those offered to me . I grew cold and formal to him . He was very patient , but his ways were not mine , and my manner puzzled and annoyed him . Our relations soon became strained , and the trifle necessary for an open quarrel was easily supplied . `` One evening I went to a large At Home given by his mother . I knew but few and , as Miles was necessarily busy with his social duties to her guests , I was , after the first hurried greeting , left unattended for a time .
Not being accustomed to such functions , I resented this as a covert insult and , XXXXX a fit of jealous pique , I blush to own that I took the revenge of a peasant maid and entered into a marked flirtation with Fred Currie , who had paid me some attention before my engagement .
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