AT LAST. 

A Novel. 

BY

MARION HARLAND, NEW YORK: 1870

CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. DEWLESS ROSES

CHAPTER II. AN EXCHANGE OF CONFIDENCES

CHAPTER III. UNWHOLESOME VAPORS

CHAPTER IV. "FOUNDED UPON A ROCK"

CHAPTER V. CLEAN HANDS

CHAPTER VI. CRAFT--OR DIPLOMACY?

CHAPTER VII. WASSIL

CHAPTER VIII. THE FACE AT THE WINDOW

CHAPTER IX. HE DEPARTETH IN DARKNESS

CHAPTER X. ROSA

CHAPTER XI. ON THE REBOUND

CHAPTER XII. AUNT RACHEL WAXES UNCHARITABLE

CHAPTER XIII. JULIUS LENNOX

CHAPTER XIV. "BORN DEAD"

CHAPTER XV. THE GOOD SAMARITAN

CHAPTER XVI. THE HONEST HOUR

CHAPTER XVII. AFTER FIFTEEN YEARS

CHAPTER XVIII. THUNDER IN THE AIR

CHAPTER XIX. NEMESIS

CHAPTER XX. INDIAN SUMMER

AT LAST. 

CHAPTER I. 

DEWLESS ROSES. 

Mrs. Rachel Sutton was a born match maker, and she had cultivatedthe gift by diligent practice. As the sight of a tendrilled vinesuggests the need and fitness of a trellis, and a stray gloveinvariably brings to mind the thought of its absent fellow, so everydisengaged spinster of marriageable age was an appeal--pathetic andsure--to the dear woman's helpful sympathy, and her whole soul wentout in compassion over such "nice" and an appropriated bachelors ascrossed her orbit, like blind and dizzy comets. 

Her propensity, and her conscientious indulgence of the same, wereproverbial among her acquaintances, but no one--not even prudish andfearsome maidens of altogether uncertain age, and prudent mammas, equally alive to expediency and decorum--had ever labelled her"Dangerous, " while with young people she was a universal favorite. Although, with an eye single to her hobby, she regarded a man as anuninteresting molecule of animated nature, unless circumstanceswarranted her in recognizing in him the possible lover of somewaiting fair one, and it was notorious that she reprobated as worsethan useless--positively demoralizing, in fact--such friendshipsbetween young persons of opposite sexes as held out no earnest ofprospective betrothal, she was confidante-general to half the girlsin the county, and a standing advisory committee of one upon allpoints relative to their associations with the beaux of the region. The latter, on their side, paid their court to the worthy andinfluential widow as punctiliously, if not so heartily, as did theirgentle friends. Not that the task was disagreeable. At fifty yearsof age, Mrs. Button was plump and comely; her fair curls unfaded, and still full and glossy; her blue eyes capable of languishing intomoist appreciation of a woful heart-history, or sparklingrapturously at the news of a triumphant wooing; her little fat handswere swift and graceful, and her complexion so infantine in itsclear white and pink as to lead many to believe and some--I neednot say of which gender--to practise clandestinely upon the storythat she had bathed her face in warm milk, night and morning, forforty years. The more sagacious averred, however, that the secret ofher continued youth lay in her kindly, unwithered heart, in herloving thoughtfulness for others' weal, and her avoidance, uponphilosophical and religions grounds, of whatever approximated thediscontented retrospection winch goes with the multitude by the nameof self-examination. 

Our bonnie widow had her foibles and vanities, but the first wereamiable, the latter superficial and harmless, usually ratherpleasant than objectionable. She was very proud, for instance, ofher success in the profession she had taken up, and which shepursued con amore; very jealous for the reputation for connubialfelicity of those she had aided to couple in the leash matrimonial, and more uncharitable toward malicious meddlers or thoughtlesstriflers with the course of true love; more implacable tomatch-breakers than to the most atrocious phases of schism, heresy, and sedition in church or state, against which she had, from herchildhood, been taught to pray. The remotest allusion to a divorcecase threw her into a cold perspiration, and apologies for suchlegal severance of the hallowed bond were commented upon as rank andnoxious blasphemy, to which no Christian or virtuous woman shouldlend her ear for an instant. If she had ever entertained "opinions"hinting at the allegorical nature of the Mosaic account of the Fall, her theory would unquestionably have been that Satan's insidiouswhisper to the First Mother prated of the beauties of feminineindividuality, and enlarged upon the feasibility of an elopementfrom Adam and a separate maintenance upon the knowledge-giving, forbidden fruit. Upon second marriages--supposing the otherwiseindissoluble tie to have been cut by Death--she was a trifle lesssevere, but it was generally understood that she had grave doubts asto their propriety--unless in exceptional cases. 

"When there is a family of motherless children, and the father ishimself young, it seems hard to require him to live alone for therest of his life, " she would allow candidly. "Not that I pretend tosay that a connection formed through prudential motives is a realmarriage in the sight of Heaven. Only that there is no human lawagainst it. And the odds are as eight to ten that an efficient hiredhousekeeper would render his home more comfortable, and his childrenhappier than would a stepmother. As for a woman marrying twice"--hergentle tone and eyes growing sternly decisive--"it is difficult forone to tolerate the idea. That is, if she really loved her firsthusband. If not, she may plead this as some excuse for making theventure--poor thing! But whether, even then, she has the moralright to lessen some good girl's chances of getting a husband bytaking two for herself, has ever been and must remain a mootedquestion in my mind. "

Her conduct in this respect was thoroughly consistent with heravowed principles. She was but thirty when her husdand died, afterliving happily with her for ten years. Her only child had precededhim to the grave four years before, and the attractive relict ofFrederic Sutton, comfortably jointured and without incumbrance ofnear relatives, would have become a toast with gay bachelors andenterprising widowers, but for the quiet propriety of her demeanor, and the steadiness with which she insisted--for the most part, tacitly--upon her right to be considered a married woman still. 

"Once Frederic's wife--always his!" was the sole burden of heranswer to a proposal of marriage received when she was forty-five, and the discomfited suitor filed it in his memory alongside ofCaesar's hackneyed war dispatch. 

She had laid off crape and bombazine at the close of the firstlustrum of her widowhood as inconvenient and unwholesome wear, butnever assumed colored apparel. On the morning on which our storyopens, she took her seat at the breakfast-table in her nephew'shouse--of which she was matron and supervisor-in-chief--clad in awhite cambric wrapper, belted with black; her collar fastened with amourning-pin of Frederic's hair, and a lace cap, trimmed with blackribbon, set above her luxuriant tresses. She looked fresh and brightas the early September day, with her sunny face and in herdaintily-neat attire, as she arranged cups and saucers for sevenpeople upon the waiter before her, instructing the butler, at thesame time, to ring the bell again for those she was to serve. Shewas very busy and happy at that date. The neighborhood was gay, after the open-hearted, open-handed style of hospitality thatdistinguished the brave old days of Virginia plantation-life. Amerry troup of maidens and cavaliers visited by invitation onehomestead after another, crowding bedrooms beyond the capacity ofany chambers of equal size to be found in the land, excepting in acountry house in the Old Dominion; surrounding bountiful tables withsmiling visages and restless tongues; dancing, walking, driving, andsinging away the long, warm days, that seemed all too short to thesoberest and plainest of the company; which sped by like dream-hoursto most of the number. 

Winston Aylett, owner and tenant of the ancient mansion ofRidgeley--the great house of a neighborhood where small houses andmen of narrow means were infrequent--had gone North about the firstof June, upon a tour of indefinite length, but which was certainlyto include Newport, the lakes, and Niagara, and was still absent. His aunt, Mrs. Sutton, and his only sister, Mabel, did the honors ofhis home in his stead, and, if the truth must be admittbd, moreacceptably to their guests than he had ever succeeded in doing. Fora week past, the house had been tolerably well filled--ditto Mrs. Sutton's hands; ditto her great, heart. Had she not three loveaffairs, in different but encouraging stages of progression, underher roof and her patronage! And were not all three, to herapprehension, matches worthy of Heaven's making, and herco-operation? A devout Episcopalian, she was yet an unquestioningbeliever in predestination and "special Providences"--and what butProvidence had brought together the dear creatures now basking inthe benignant beam of her smile, sailing smoothly toward the havenof Wedlock before the prospering breezes of Circumstance (of hermanufacture)?

While putting sugar and cream into the cups intended for the happypairs, she reviewed the situation rapidly in her mind, and sketchedthe day's manoeuvres. 

First, there was the case of Tom Barksdale and Imogene Tabb--highlysatisfactory and creditable to all the parties concerned in it, butnot romantic. Tom, a sturdy young planter, who had studied law whileat the University, but never practised it, being already providedfor by his opulent father, had visited his relatives, the Tabbs, inAugust, and straightway fallen in love with the one single daughterof his second cousin--a pretty, amiable girl, who would inherit aneat fortune at her parent's death, and whose pedigree becameidentical with that of the Barksdales a couple of generations back, and was therefore unimpeachable. The friends on both sides wereenchanted; the lovers fully persuaded that they were made for oneanother, an opinion cordially endorsed by Mrs. Sutton, and theycould confer with no higher authority. 

Next came Alfred Branch and Rosa Tazewell--incipient, but promisingat this juncture, inasmuch as Rosa had lately smiled moreencouragingly upon her timid wooer than she had deigned to do beforethey were domesticated at Ridgeley. Mrs. Sutton did not approve ofunmaidenly forwardness. The woman who would unsought be won, wouldhave fared ill in her esteem. Her lectures upon the beauties andadvantages of a modest, yet alluring reserve, were cut up intofamiliar and much-prized quotations among her disciples, and wereacted upon the more willingly for the prestige that surrounded herexploits as high priestess of Hymen. But Rosa had been too coy toAlfred's evident devotion--almost repellent at seasons. Had theserebuffs not alternated with attacks of remorse, during which theexceeding gentleness of her demeanor gradually pried the crushedhopes of her adorer out of the slough, and cleansed their droopingplumes of mud, the courtship would have fallen through, ere Mrs. Sutton could bring her skill to bear upon it. Guided, and yetsoothed by her velvet rein, Rosa really seemed to become moresteady. She was assuredly more thoughtful, and there was no bettersign of Cupid's advance upon the outworks of a girl's heart thanreverie. If her fits of musing were a shade too pensive, theexperienced eye of the observer descried no cause for discouragementin this feature. Rosa was a spoiled, wayward child, freakish andmischievous, to whom liberty was too dear to be resigned without asigh. By and by, she would wear her shackles as ornaments, like allother sensible and loving women. 

Thus preaching to Alfred, when he confided to her the fluctuationsof rapture and despair that were his lot in his intercourse with thesometimes radiant and inviting, sometimes forbidding sprite, whosewings he would fain bind with his embrace, and thus reassuringherself, when perplexed by a flash of Rosa's native perverseness, Mrs. Sutton was sanguine that all would come right in the end. Whatwas to be would be, and despite the rapids in their wooing, Alfredwould find in Rosa a faithful, affectionate little wife, while shecould never hope to secure a better, more indulgent, and, in mostrespects, more eligible, partner than the Ayletts' well-to-do, well-looking neighbor. 

But the couple who occupied the central foreground of ourmatch-maker's thoughts were her niece, Mabel Aylott, and her owndeparted husband's namesake, Frederic Chilton. She dilated toherself and to Mabel with especial gusto upon the "wonderfulleading, " the inward whisper that had prompted her to propose a tripto the Rockbridge Alum Springs early in July. Neither she nor Mabelwas ailing in the slightest degree, but she imagined they would bethe brighter for a glimpse of the mountains and the livelier scenesof that pleasant Spa--and whom should they meet there but the son of"dear Frederic's" old friend, Mr. Chilton, and of course they saw agreat deal of him--and the rest followed as Providence meant itshould. 

"The rest" expressed laconically the essence of numberless walks bymoonlight and starlight; innumerable dances in the great ball-room, and the sweeter, more interesting confabulations that made the youngpeople better acquainted in four weeks than would six years ofconventional calls and small-talk. They stayed the month out, although "Aunt Rachel" had, upon their arrival, named a fortnight asthe extreme limit of their sojourn. Frederic Chilton was theirescort to Eastern Virginia, and remained a week at Ridgeley--perhapsto recover from the fatigue of the journey. So soon as he returnedto Philadelphia, in which place he had lately opened a law-office, he wrote to Mabel, declaring his affection for her, and suing forreciprocation. She granted him a gracious reply, and sanctioned byfond, sympathetic Aunt Rachel, in the absence of Mabel's brother andguardian, the correspondence was kept up briskly until Frederic'ssecond visit in September. Ungenerous gossips, envious of hertalents and influence, had occasionally sneered at Mrs. Sutton'sappropriation of the credit of other alliances--but this one was herhandiwork beyond dispute--hers and Providence's. She never forgotthe partnership. She had carried her head more erect, and there wasa brighter sparkle in her blue orbs since the evening Mabel had comeblushingly to her room, Fred's proposal in her hand--to ask counseland congratulations. Everybody saw through the discreet veil withwhich she flattered herself she concealed her exultation when othersthan the affianced twain were by--and while nobody was so unkind asto expose the thinness of the pretence, she was given to understandin many and gratifying ways that her masterpiece was considered, inthe Aylett circle, a suitable crown to the achievements that hadpreceded it. Mabel was popular and beloved, and her betrothed, inappearance and manner, in breeding and intelligence, justified Mrs. Sutton's pride in her niece's choice. 

The old lady colored up, with the quick, vivid rose-tint of suddenand real pleasure that rarely outlives early girlhood, when thefirst respondent to the breakfast-bell proved to be her Frederic'sgod-son. 

"You are always punctual! I wish you would teach the good habit tosome other people, " she said, after answering his cordial"good-morning. "

"None of us deserve to be praised on that score, to-day, " rejoinedhe, looking at his watch. "I did not awake until the dressing-bellrang. Our riding-party was out late last night. The extreme beautyof the evening beguiled us into going further than we intended, whenwe set out. "

"Yes! you young folks are falling into shockingly irregularhabits--take unprecedented liberties with me and with Time!" shakingher head. "If Winston do not return soon, you will set my mild ruleentirely at defiance. "

Chilton laughed--but was serious the next instant. 

"I expected confidently to meet him at this visit, " he said, glancing at the door to guard against being overheard. "Should henot return to-day, ought I not, before leaving this to-morrow, towrite to him, since he is legally his sister's guardian? It is, youand she tell me, a mere form, but one that should not be dispensedwith any longer. "

"That may be so. Winston is rigorous in requiring what is due to hisposition--is, in some respects, a fearful formalist. But he willhardly oppose your wishes and Mabel's. He has her real happiness atheart, I believe, although he is, at times, an over-strict andexacting guardian--perhaps to counterbalance my indulgent policy. Heis unlike any other young man I know. "

"His sister is very much attached to him. "

"She loves him--I was about to say, preposterously. Her implicitbelief in and obedience to him have increased his self-confidenceinto a dogmatic assertion of infallibility. But"--fearing she mightcreate an unfortunate impression upon the listener's mind--"Winstonhas grounds for his good opinion of himself. His character isunblemished--his principles and aims are excellent. Only"--relapsinghopelessly into the confidential strain in which most of theconference had been carried--"between ourselves, my dear Frederic, Iam never quite easy with these patterns to the rest of human-kind. Ishould even prefer a tiny vein of depravity to such very rectangularvirtue. "

"You are seldom ill at ease, if human perfection is all that rendersyou uncomfortable, " responded Frederic. "There are not many in whosecomposition one cannot trace, not a tiny, but a broad vein of Adamicnature. What a delicious morning!" he added, sauntering to thewindow. 

"And how sorry I am for those who did not get up in time to enjoythe freshness of its beauty!" cried a gay voice from the portico, and Mabel entered by the glass door behind him--her hands loadedwith roses, herself so beaming that her lover refrained withdifficulty from kissing the saucy mouth then and there. 

He did take both her hands, under pretext of relieving her of theflowers, and Aunt Rachel judiciously turned her back upon them, andbegan a diligent search in the beaufet for a vase. 

"Do you expect us to believe that you have been more industriousthan we? As if we did not know that you bribed the gardener to havea bouquet cut and laid ready for you at the back-door, " Fredericcharged upon the matutinal Flora. "Else, where are other evidencesof your stroll, in dew-sprinkled draperies and wet feet? Confessthat you ran down stairs just two minutes ago! Now that I come tothink of it, I am positive that I heard you, while Mrs. Sutton waslamenting your drowsy proclivities after sunrise. "

"I have been sitting in the summer-house for an hour--reading!"protested Mabel, wondrously resigned to the detention, after asingle, and not violent attempt at release. "If you had opened yourshutters you must have seen me. But I knew I was secure fromobservation on that side of the house, at least until eight o'clock, about which time the glories of the new day usually penetrate verytightly-closed lids. As to dew--there isn't a drop upon grass orblossom. And, by the same token, we shall have a storm withintwenty-four hours. "

"Is that true? That is a meteorological presage I never heard ofuntil now. "

"There is a moral in it, which I leave you to study out foryourself, while I arrange the roses I--and not thegardener--gathered. "

In a whisper, she subjoined--"Let me go! Some one is coming!" and ina second more was at the sideboard, hurrying the flowers into theantique china bowl, destined to grace the centre of the breakfasttable. 

"Good-morning, Miss Rosa. You are just in season to enjoy thesociety of your sister, " Frederic said, lightly, pointing to thebillows of mingled white and red, tossing under Mabel's fingers. 

The new-comer approached the sideboard, leaned languidly upon herelbow, and picked up a half-blown bud at random from the pile. 

"They are scentless!" she complained. 

"Because dewless!" replied Mabel, with profound gravity. "It is thetearful heart that gives out the sweetest fragrance. "

"I have more faith in sunshine, " interrupted Rosa, a tinge ofcontempt in her smile and accent. "Or--to drop metaphors, at whichI always bungle--it is my belief that it is easy for happy people tobe good. All this talk about the sweetness of crushed blossoms, throwing their fragrance from the wounded part, and the rivensandal-tree, and the blessed uses of adversity, is outrageousbalderdash, according to my doctrine. A buried thing is but onedegree better than a dead one. What it is the fashion of poets andsentimentalists to call perfume, is the odor of incipient decay. "

"You are illustrating your position by means of my poor orientalpearl, " remonstrated Mabel, playfully, wresting the hand that wasbeating the life and whiteness out of the floweret upon the marbletop of the beaufet. "Take this hardy geant de batailles, instead. Mybouquet must have a cluster of pearls for a heart. "

"What a fierce crimson!" Frederic remarked upon the widely-openedrose Miss Tazewell received in place of the delicate bud. "That mustbe the 'hue angry, yet brave, ' which, Mr. George Herbert asserts, 'bids the rash gazer wipe his eye. '"

"More poetical nonsense!" said Rosa, deliberately tearing the bold"geant" to pieces down to the bare stem, "unless he meant to becomic, and intimate that the gazer was so rash as to come too nearthe bush, and ran a thorn into the pupil. "

No one answered, except by the indulgent smile that usually greetedher sallies, howeve? absurd, among those accustomed to the spoiledchild's vagaries. 

Mabel was making some leisurely additions to her bouquet in theshape of ribbon grass and pendent ivy sprays, coaxing these withpersuasive touches to trail over the edge and entwine the pedestalof the salver on which her bowl was elevated; her head set slightlyon one side, her lips apart in a smile of enjoyment in her work andin herself. It was a picture the lover studied fondly--one that hungforever thereafter in his gallery of mental portraits. Beyond a pairof fine gray eyes, the pliant grace of her figure and the buoyantcarriage of youth, health, and a glad heart, Mabel's pretensions tobeauty were comparatively few, said the world. Frederic Chilton had, nevertheless, fallen in love with her at sight, and considered her, now, the handsomest woman of his acquaintance. Her dress was asimple lawn--a sheer white fabric, with bunches of purple grassbound up with yellow wheat, scattered over it; her hair was lustrousand abundant, and her face, besides being happy, was frank andintelligent, with wonderful mobility of expression. In temperamentand sentiment; in capacity for, and in demonstration of affection, she suited Frederic to the finest fibre of his mind and heart. He, for one, did not carp at Aunt Rachel's declaration that they wereintended to spend time and eternity together. 

Still, Mabel Aylett was not a belle, and Rosa Tazewell was. Callowcollegians and enterprising young merchants from the city;sunbrowned owners of spreading acres and hosts of laborers; studentsand practitioners of law and medicine, and an occasional theologue, had broken their hearts for perhaps a month at a time, for love ofher, since she was a school-girl in short dresses. Yet there hadbeen a date very far back in the acquaintanceship of each of thesewith the charmer, when he had marvelled at the infatuation which hadblinded her previous adorers. She was "a neat little thing, " withher round waist, her tiny hands and feet and roguish eye--but therewas nothing else remarkable about her features, and in coloring, thepicture was too dark for his taste. Why, she might be mistaken for acreole! And each critic held fast to his expressed opinion until theroguish eyes met his directly and with meaning, and he found himselfdiving into the bright, shimmering wells, and drowning--stillecstatically--before he reached the bottom whence streamed the lightof passionate feeling, striking upward through the surface. What herglances did not effect was done by her dazzling smile and musicalvoice. 

As one of her victims swore, "It was a dearer delight to be rejectedby her than to be accepted by a dozen other girls--she did the thingup so handsomely! And yet, do you know, sir, I could have shotmyself for a barbarous brute when I saw the pitying tears standingupon her lashes, and heard the tremor in her sweet tones, as shebegged me to forgive her for not loving me!"

Those she had once captivated never quite rid themselves of theglamour of her arts; remained her trusty squires, ready to serve, orto defend her always afterward. 

Aunt Rachel, intent, during the short pause, upon the movements ofthe servant who was setting the smoking breakfast upon the table, glanced around when all was properly arranged, to summon the two totheir places--but something in Rosa's attitude and countenance heldher momentarily speechless. Mabel still bent over her roses, insmiling interest, and Frederic Chilton was watching her--but not asthe third person of the group about the beaufet watched them bothbetween her half-closed lids, her black brows close together, andthe glittering teeth visible under the curling upper lip. 

"She looked like a panther lying in wait for her prey!" Mrs. Suttonsaid to her niece, many months later, in attempting to describe thescene. "Or like a bright-eyed snake coiled for a spring. The sightof her sent shivers all down my spine. "

Her interruption of the tableau sounded oddly abrupt to ears used toher pleasant accents. 

"Come, young people! how long are you going to keep me waiting?Breakfast is cooling fast!"

"I beg your pardon, Auntie! I did not notice that it had beenbrought in, " apologized Mabel, drawing back, that Frederic mightlift the loaded salver carefully to its place upon the board. 

As they were closing about this, they were joined by Messrs. Barksdale and Branch, Miss Tabb delaying her appearance until therepast was nearly over, and meeting the raillery of the party uponher late rising with the sweet, soft smile her cousin-betrothedadmired as the indication of unadulterated amiability. Thebreakfast-hour, always pleasant, was to-day particularly merry. Rosaled off in the laughing debates, the play of repartee, friendlyjest, and anecdote that incited all to mirth and speech and temptedthem to linger around the table long after the business of the mealwag concluded. 

"This is the perfection of country life!" said Frederic Chilton, when, at last, there was a movement to end the sitting. "But itspoils one fearfully for the everyday practicalities of the city--aNorthern city, especially. "

"Better stay where you are, then, instead of deserting our ranksto-morrow, " suggested Rosa, gliding by his side out upon the longportico at the end of the house. "What does your nature crave thatRidgeley cannot supply?"

"Work, and a career!"

"You still feel the need of these?" significantly. 

"Otherwise I were no man!"

"You are right!"

Her disdainful eyes wandered to the farther end of the portico, where Alfred Branch, in his natty suit of white grasscloth, pluckedat his ebon whiskers with untanned fingers, and talked societynothings with the ever-complaisant Imogene. 

"Come what may, you, Mr. Chilton, have occupation for thought andhands; are not tied down to a detestable routine of vapid pleasuresand common-place people!"

"You are--every independent woman and man--is as free in thisrespect as myself, Miss Rosa. None need be a slave toconventionality unless he choose. "

She made a gesture that was like twisting a chain apon her wrist. 

"You know you are not sincere in saying that. I wondered, moreover, when you were railing at the practicalities of city life, if youwere learning, like the rest of the men, to accommodate your talk toyour audience. Where is the use of your trying to disguise the truththat all women are slaves? I used to envy you when I was inPhiladelphia, last winter, when you pleaded business engagements asan excuse for declining invitations to dinner-parties and balls. Now, if a woman defies popular decrees by refusing to exhibitherself for the popular entertainment, the horrible whisper isforthwith circulated that she has been 'disappointed, ' and is hidingher green wound in her sewing-room or oratory. 'Disappointed, 'forsooth! That is what they say of every girl who is not married tosomebody by the time she is twenty-five. It matters not whether shecares for him or not. Having but one object in existence, there canbe but one species of disappointment. Marry she must, or be PITIED!"with a stinging emphasis on the last word. 

Tom Barksdale and Mabel were pacing the portico from end to end, chatting with the cheerful familiarity of old friends. Catching someof thin energetic sentence, Mabel looked over her shoulder. 

"Who of us is fated to be pitied, did you say, Rosa dear?"

"Never yourself!" was the curt reply. "Rest content with thatassurance. "

Her restless fingers began to gather the red leaves that alreadyvariegated the foliage of the creeper shading the porch. Strangelyindisposed to answer her animadversions upon the world's judgment ofher sex, or to acknowledge the implied compliment to his betrothed, Frederic watched the lithe, dark hands, as they overflowed with thevermilion trophies of autumn. The September sunshine sifted throughthe vines in patches upon the floor; the low laughter and blendedvoices of the four talkers; the echo of Tom's manly tread, andMabel's lighter footfall, were all jocund music, befitting thebrightness of the day and world. What was the spell by which thispettish girl who stood by him, her luminous eyes fixed in sardonicmelancholy upon the promenaders, while she rubbed the dying leavesinto atoms between her palms--had stamped scenes and sounds withimmortality, yet thrilled him with the indefinite sense of unrealityand dread one feels in scanning the lineaments of the beloved dead?Had her nervous folly infected him? What absurd phantasy was hers, and what his concern in her whims?

A stifled cry from Mabel aroused him to active attention. Agentlemen had stepped from the house upon the piazza, and afterbending to kiss her, was shaking hands with her companions. 

"The Grand Mogul!" muttered Rosa, with a comic grimace, and notoffering to stir in the direction of the stranger. 

In another moment Mabel had led him up to her lover, and introduced, in her pretty, ladylike way, and bravely enough, considering herblushes, "Mr. Chilton" to "my brother, Mr. Winston Aylett. "

CHAPTER II. 

AN EXCHANGE OF CONFIDENCES. 

"And so you know nothing of this gentleman beyond what he has toldyou of his character and antecedents?"

Aunt Rachel had knocked at the door of her nephew's study afterdinner, on the day of his return, and asked for an interview. 

"Although I know you must be very busy with your accounts, and soforth, having been away from the plantation for so long, " she said, deprecatingly, yet accepting the invitation to enter. 

Mr. Aylett's eye left hers as he replied that he was quite atliberty to listen to whatever she had to say, but his manner wasentirely his own--polished and cool. 

Family tradition had it that he was naturally a man of strongpassions and violent temper, but since his college days, he hadnever, as far as living mortal could testify, lifted the impassivemask he wore, at the bidding of anger, surprise, or alarm. He ranall his tilts--and he was not a non-combatant by any means--withlocked visor. In person, he was commanding in stature; his featureswere symmetrical; his bearing high-bred. His conversation wassensible, but never brilliant or animated. In his own household hewas calmly despotic; in his county, respected and unpopular--one ofwhom nobody dared speak ill, yet whom nobody had reason to love. There was a single person who believed herself to be an exception tothis rule. This was his sister Mabel. Some said she worshipped himin default of any other object upon which she could expend thewealth of her young, ardent heart; others, that his strong willenforced her homage. The fact of her devotion was undeniable, andupon his appreciation of this Aunt Rachel built her expectations ofa favorable hearing when she volunteered to prepare the way for Mr. Chilton's formal application for the hand of her nephew's ward. Between herself and Winston there existed little real liking andless affinity. She was useful to him, and his tolerance of hersociety was courteous, but she understood perfectly that he secretlydespised many of her views and actions, as, indeed, he did those ofmost women. Her present mission was undertaken for the love she boreMabel and her sister. It was not kind to send the girl to tell herown story. It was neither kind nor fair to subject their guest tothe ordeal of an unheralded disclosure of his sentiments andaspirations, with the puissant lord of Ridgeley as sole auditor. 

"Fred would never get over the first impression of your brother'schilling reserve, " said the self-appointed envoy to Mabel, when sheinsisted that her affianced would plead his cause more eloquentlythan a third person could. "For, you, must confess, my love, thatWinston, although in most respects a model to other young men, isunapproachable by strangers. "

As she said "your accounts and so forth, " she looked at the tablefrom which Mr. Aylett had arisen to set a chair for her. There was apile of account-books at the side against the wall, but they wereshut, and over heaped by pamphlets and newspapers; while before theowner's seat lay an open portfolio, an unfinished letter within it. Winston wiped his pen with deliberation, closed the portfolio, snapped to the spring-top of his inkstand, and finally wheeled hisoffice chair away from the desk to face his visitor. 

"Is it upon business that you wish to speak to me?"

He always disdained circumlocution, prided himself upon thedirectness and simplicity of his address. This acted now as adissuasive to the sentimental address Mrs. Sutton had meditated as ameans of winning the flinty walls behind which his social affectionsand sympathies were supposed to be intrenched. Had her mission beenin behalf of any other cause, she would have drawn off her forcesupon some pretext, and effected an ignominious retreat. Nerved bythe thought of Mabel's bashfulness and solicitude, and Frederic'sstrangerhood, she stood to her guns. 

Winston heard her story, from the not very coherent preamble, to thewarm and unqualified endorsement of Frederic Chilton's credentials, and her moved mention of the mutual attachment of the youthful pair, and never changed his attitude, or manifested any inclination tostay the narration by question or comment. When she ceased speaking, his physiognomy denoted no emotion whatever. Yet, Mabel was hisnearest living relative. She had been bequeathed to his care, whenonly ten years old, by the will of their dying father, and grown upunder his eye as his child, rather than a sister. And he washearing, for the first time, of her desire to quit the home they hadshared together from her birth, for the protection and companionshipof another. Mrs. Sutton thought herself pretty well versed in"Winston's ways, " but she had expected to detect a shade of softnessin the cold, never-bright eyes and anticipated another rejoinderthan the sentence that stands at the head of this chapter. 

"And so you know nothing of this gentleman beyond what he has toldyou of his character and antecedents?" he said--the slender whitefingers, his aunt fancied, looked cruel even in their idleness, lightly linked together while his elbows restod upon the arms of hischair. 

"My dear Winston! what a question! Haven't I told you that he is myhusband's namesake and godson! I was at his fathers house a score oftimes, at least, in dear Frederic's life-time. It was a charmingplace, and I never saw a more lovely family. I recollect this boyperfectly, as was very natural, seeing that his name was such acompliment to my husband. He was a fine, manly little fellow, andthe eldest son. The christening-feast was postponed, for some reasonI do not now remember, until he was two years old. It was a veryfine affair. The company was composed of the very elite of that partof Maryland, and the Bishop himself baptized the twobabies--Frederic, and a younger sister. I know all about him, yousee, instead of nothing!"

"What was the date of this festival?" asked Winston's unwaveringvoice. 

"Let me see! We had been married seven years that fall. It must havebeen in the winter of 18--. "

"Twenty-three years ago!" said Winston, yet more quietly. "Doubtless, your intimacy with this estimable and distinguishedfamily continued up to the time of your husband's death?"

"It did. "

"And afterward?"

Mrs. Button's color waned, And her voice sank, as the inquisitionproceeded. "Dear Frederic's" death was not the subject she wouldhave chosen of her free will to discuss with this man of steel andice. 

"I never visited them again. I could not--"

If she hoped to retain a semblance of composure, she must shift herground. 

"I returned to my father's house, which was, as you know, moreremote from the borders of Maryland--"

"You kept up a correspondence, perhaps?" Winston interposed, overlooking her agitation as irrelevant to the matter underinvestigation. 

"No! For many months I wrote no letters at all, and Mr. Chilton wasnever a punctual correspondent. The best of friends are apt to bedilatory in such respects, as they advance in life. "

"I gather, then, from what you have ADMITTED"--there was no actualstress upon the word, but it stood obnoxiously apart from theremainder of the sentence, to Mrs. Sutton's auriculars--"from whatyou have admitted, that for twenty years you have lost sight of thisgentleman and his relatives, and that you might never haveremembered the circumstance of their existence, had he notintroduced himself to you at the Springs this summer. "

"You are mistaken, there!" corrected the widow, eagerly. "RosaTazewell introduced him to Mabel at the first 'hop'she--Mabel--attended there. He is very unassuming. He would neverhave forced himself upon my notice. I was struck by his appearanceand resemblance to his father, and inquired of Mabel who he was. Therecognition followed as a matter of course. "

"He was an acquaintance of Miss Tazewell--did you say?"

"Yes--she knew him very well when she was visiting in Philadelphialast winter. "

"And proffered the introduction to Mabel?" the faintest imaginableglimmer of sarcastic amusement in his eyes, but none in his accent. 

"He requested it, I believe. "

"That is more probable. Excuse my frankness, aunt, when I say thatit would have been more in consonance with the laws controlling theconduct of really thoroughbred people, had your paragon--I use theterm in no offensive sense--applied to me, instead of to you, forpermission to pay his addresses to my ward. I am willing to ascribethis blunder, however, to ignorance of the code of polite society, and not to intentional disrespect, since you represent the gentlemanas amiable and well-meaning. I am, furthermore, willing to examinehis certificates of character and means, with a view to determiningwhat are his recommendations to my sister's preference, over andabove ball-room graces and the fact that he is Mr. Sutton'snamesake, and whether it will be safe and advisable to grant myconsent to their marriage. Whatever is for Mabel's real welfareshall be done, while I cannot but wish that her choice had fallenupon some one nearer home The prosecution of inquiries as to thereputation of one whose residence is so distant, is a difiicult anddelicate task. "

"If you will only talk to him for ten minutes he will remove yourscruples, --satisfy you that all is as it should be, " asserted Mrs. Sutton, more confidently to him than herself. 

"I trust it will be as you say--but credulity is not my besettingsin. I am ready to see the gentleman at any hour you and he may seefit to appoint. "

"I will send MR. CHILTON to you at once, then. " Mrs, Suttoncollected the scattering remnants of hope and resolution, that shemight deal a parting shot. 

"Winston is an AWFUL trial to my temper, although he never loses hisown, " she was wont to soliloquize, in the lack of a confidante towhom she could expatiate upon his eccentricities and generaluntowardness. His marked avoidance of Frederic's name in thisconference savored to her of insulting meaning. She had rather hehad coupled it with opprobious epithets whenever he referred to him, than spoken of him as "this" or "that gentleman. " If he took thishigh and chilly tone, with Mabel's wooer, there was no telling whatmight be the result of the affair. 

"Don't mind him if he is stiff and uncompromising for a while, " sheenjoined upon Frederic, in apprising him of the seignior's readinessto grant him audience, "It is only his way, and he is Mabel'sbrother. "

"I will bear the latter hint in mind, " rejoined the young man, withthe gay, affectionate smile he often bestowed upon her. " I don'tbelieve he can awe me into resignation of my purpose, or provoke meinto dislike of the rest of the family. "

Mabel was in her aunt's room, plying her with queries, hard to beevaded, touching the tenor and consequences of her recentnegotiations, when a servant brought a message from her brother. Shewas wanted in the study. The girl turned very white, as she preparedto obey, without an idea of delay or of refusal. 

"O Auntie! what if he should order me to give Frederic up!" sheejaculated, pausing at the door, in an agony of trepidation. "Inever disobeyed him in my life. "

"He will not do that, dear, never fear! He can find no pretext forsuch summary proceedings. And should he oppose your wishes, be firmof purpose, and do not forsake your affianced husband, " advised theold lady, solemnly. "There is a duty which takes precedence, in thesight of Heaven and man, of that you owe your brother. Rememberthis, and take courage. "

Mabel's roses returned in profusion, when, upon entering thearbiter's dread presence, she saw Frederic Chilton, standing on theopposite side of the table from that at which sat her brother at hisease, his white fingers still idly interlaced, his pale patricianface emotionless as that of the bust of Apollo upon the top of thebookcase behind him. It was Frederic who led her to a chair, whenshe stopped, trembling midway in the apartment, and his touch uponher arm inspirited her to raise her regards to Winston's countenanceat the sound of his voice. 

"I have sent for you, Mabel, that I may repeat in you hearing thereply I have returned to Mr. Chilton's application for my sanctionto your engagement--I should say, perhaps, to your reciprocalattachment. The betrothal of a minor without the consent, positiveor implied, of her parent or guardian is, as I have just explainedto Mr. Chilton, but an empty name in this State. I have promised, then, not to oppose your marriage, provided the inquiries I shallinstitute concerning Mr. Chilton's previous life, his character, andhis ability to maintain you in comfort, are answered satisfactorily. He will understand and excuse my pertinacity upon this point when hereflects upon the value of the stake involved in this transaction. "

In all their intercourse, Frederic had no more gracious notice fromMabel's brother than this semi-apology, delivered with statelycondescension, and a courtly bow in his direction. 

It sounded very grand to Mabel, whose fears of opposition orseverity from her Mentor had shaken courage and nerves into pitiabledistress. Frederic could desire nothing more affable than Winston'ssmile; no more abundant encouragement than was afforded by hisvoluntary pledge. Had not the thought savored of disloyalty to herlover, she would have confessed herself disappointed that his replydid not effervesce with gratitude, that his deportment was distant, his tone constrained. 

"I appreciate the last-named consideration, Mr. Aylett, I believe, thoroughly, as you do. I have already told you that I invite, notshirk, the investigation you propose. I now repeat my offer ofwhatever facility is at my command for carrying this on. Nohonorable man could do less. Unless I mistake, you wish now to seeyour sister alone. "

He bent his head slightly, and without other and especial salutationto his betrothed, withdrew. 

Odd, white dints came and went in Winston's nostrils--the one andunerring facial sign of displeasure he ever exhibited, if we excepta certain hardening of eye and contour that chiselled his lineamentsinto a yet closer resemblance to marble. 

"He is very sensitive and proud, I know, " faltered Mabel, hastilymarking these, and understanding what they portended. 

"You need not like him the less on that account, always providedthat the supports of his pride are legitimate and substantial, "answered her brother, carelessly transferring to his tablets severalnames from a sheet of paper upon the table--the addresses of personsto whom Frederic had referred him for confirmation of his statementsregarding his social and professional standing. 

"I hope, for your sake, Mabel, " he pursueds pocketing the memoranda, "that this affair may be speedily and agreeably adjusted; while Icannot deny that I deprecate the unseemly haste with which Mrs. Sutton and her ally have urged it on, in my absence. Had theyintended to court suspicion, they could not have done it moreeffectually. You could not have had a more injudicious chaperone tothe Springs. "

"Indeed, brother, she was not to blame, " began the generous girl, forgetting her embarrassment in zealous defence of the aunt sheloved. "It was not she who presented me to Mr. Chilton, and she hasnever attempted to bias my decision in any manner. "

"I have heard the history in detail. " Had his breeding been lessfine, he would have yawned in her face. "I know that you areindebted for Mr. Chilton's acquaintanceship to Miss Tazewell'sgenerosity. But in strict justice, Mrs. Sutton should be heldresponsible for whatever unhappiness may arise from the intimacy. You were left by myself in her charge. "

"I do not believe it will end unhappily, " Mabel was moved to reply, with spirit that became her better than the shyness she hadheretofore displayed, or the submissive demeanor usual with her intête-à-têtes with her guardian. 

He smiled in calm superiority. 

"I have expressed my hope to that effect. Of expectations it will betime enough to speak when I am better informed upon divers points. Iam not one to take much for granted, am less sanguine than myromantic aunt, or even than my more practical sister. Assuming, however, that all is as you would have it, your wish would be, Isuppose, for an early marriage?"

"There has been little said about that, " responded Mabel, reddening--then rallying to add smilingly--"such an arrangementwould have involved the taking for granted a good many things--yourconsent among them. "

Winston passed over the addenda. 

"But that little, especially when uttered by Mr. Chiiton, trenchedupon the inexpediency of long engagements--did it not?"

Mabel was mute, her eyes downcast. 

"I agree with him there, at any rate. You are nineteen years of age;he twenty-five. Your property is unincumbered, and can betransferred to your keeping at very short notice. Mr. Chiitonrepresents that his income from his patrimonial estate, eked out byprofessional gains, is sufficient to warrant him in marryingforthwith. I shall see that no time is lost in making the inquiriesupon which depends the progress of the negotiation. Business callsme North in a week or ten days. I shall stop a day in Philadelphia, and settle your affair. "

The frightfully business-like manner of disposing of her happinessappalled the listener into silence. The loss of Frederic; thedestruction of her love-dream; the weary years of lonelywretchedness that would follow the bereavement, were to him onlyunimportant incidentals to her "affair;" weighed in the scale of hisimpartial judgment no more than would unconsidered dust. For thefirst time in the life to which he had been the guiding-star, sheventured to wonder if the unswerving rectitude that had elevated himabove the level of other men, in her esteem and affection, were soglorious a thing after all; if a tempering, not of human frailty, but of charity for the shortcomings, sympathy for the needs, ofordinary mortals, would not subdue the effulgence of his talents andvirtues into mild lustre, more tolerable to the optics of falliblebeholders

Unsuspicious, with all his astuteness, of her sacrilegious doubts, Winston proceeded:

"In the event of your marriage, you would desire, no doubt, thatMrs. Sutton should take up her abode with you? You would find heruseful in many ways, and she would get on amicably with herhusband's godson. "

"I do not think she expects to go with me, " answered Mabel, staggered by his coolly confident air. "I certainly have neverentertained the idea. I imagined that she would remain with you, while you needed her services. "

"That will not be long. I shall be married on the 10th of October. "

"Married! brother!" starting up in amazement. "You are not inearnest!"

"I should not jest upon such a theme, " replied Winston, in graverebuke. "My plans are definitely laid. It is not my purpose to keepthem secret a day longer. I meant to communicate them to yourselfand Mrs. Sutton this afternoon, but yours claimed precedence. "

Mabel sat down again, totally confounded, and struggling hard withher tears. The thought of her brother's marriage was not in itselfdisagreeable. She had often lamented his insensibility to theattractions of such women as she fancied would add to his happiness, and grace the high place to which his wife would be exalted. Shenever liked to hear him called invulnerable; repelled the hypothesisof his incurable bachelorhood as derogatory to his heart and head. This unlooked-for intelligence, had it reached her in a differentway, would have delighted as much as it astonished her. The fearlest her consent to wed Frederic and leave Ridgeley might be theoccasion of discomfort and sadness to her forsaken brother hadshadowed all her visions of future bliss. She ought to have hailedwith unmixed satisfaction the certainty that he would not miss hersisterly ministrations, or feel the need of her companionship inthat of one nearer and dearer than was his child-ward. She hadstriven not to resent even in her own mind, his cavalier treatmentof her lover; had hearkened respectfully and without demur to hisunsympathizing calculations of what was possible and what feasiblein the project of her union with the man of her choice. For howcould he know anything of the palpitations, the anxieties, theraptures of love, when he was a stranger to the touch of a kindredemotion? He meant well; he had her welfare in view; unfortunate aswas his style of discussing the means for insuring this--for heloved her dearly, dearly!

She must never question this, although he had dealt the comfortablepersuasion a cruel blow; wounded her in a vital part by withholdingfrom her the circumstance of his attachment and betrothal until thenear approach of the wedding day rendered continued secrecyinexpedient. No softening memory of his affianced had inclined himto listen with kindly warmth to her timid avowals, or Frederic'smanly protestations of their mutual attachment. He recognized noanalogy in the two cases; stood aloof from them in the flush of hissuccessful love, as if he had never known the pregnant meaning ofthe word. Smarting under the sense of injury to pride and affection, her language, when she could trust her voice, was a protest that, inWinston's judgment, ill beseemed her age and station. 

"Why did you not tell me of this earlier, brother? It was unjust andunkind to keep me in the dark until now. "

"You forget yourself, Mabel. I am not under obligation to account toyou for my actions. "

He said it composedly, as if stating a truth wholly disconnectedwith feeling on his part or on hers. 

"I have given you the information to which you refer, in season foryou to make ample preparation for my wife's reception. And, mark me, she must see no sulkiness, no airs of strangeness or intolerance, because I have managed a matter that concerns me chiefly, as seemedto me best. Say the same to Mrs. Sutton, if you please; also that Iwill submit to no dictation, and ask no advice. "

Mabel's anger seldom outlived its utterance. The hot sparkle in hereye was quenched by moisture, as she laid her hand caressingly uponher brother's. 

"Winston! you cannot suppose that we could be wanting in cordialityto any one whom you love, much less to your wife. Let her come whenshe may, she will be heartily welcomed by us both. But this hasfallen suddenly upon me, and I am a little out of sorts to-day, Ibelieve--excited and nervous--and, O, my darling! my oldest and bestof friends! I hope your love will bring to you the happiness youdeserve. "

The tears had their course, at last, bathing the hand she bowed tokiss. The simple ardor of the outbreak would have affected many mento a show of responsive weakness. Even Winston Aylett's physiognomywas more human and less statuesque, as he patted her head, and badeher be composed. 

"If you persist in enacting Niobe, I shall believe that you arechagrined at the prospect of having the sister you have repeatedlybesought me to give you, " he said, playfully--for him. "You have notasked me her name, and where she lives. What has become of yourcuriosity? I never knew it to be quiescent before. "

"I thought you would tell me whatever it was best for me to know, "replied Mabel, drying her eyes. 

If she had said that she was too well-trained to assail him withinterrogatories he had not invited, it would have been nearer themark. 

"There is nothing relating to her which I desire to conceal, " herejoined, with some stiffness, "or she would never have become mypromised wife. She is a Miss Dorrance, the daughter of a widowresiding in the vicinity of Boston, Massachusetts. I met her firstat Trenton Falls, where a happy accident brought me into associationwith her party. I travelled with them to the Lakes and among theWhite Mountains, and, while in Boston, visited her daily. We werebetrothed a week ago, and having, as I have observed, an aversion toprotracted engagements, I prevailed upon her to appoint the tenth ofnext mouth as our marriage day. There you have the story in brief. Ihave not Mrs. Sutton's talents as a raconteur, nor her dispositionto turn hearts inside out for the edification of her auditors. "

"Does she--Miss Dorrance--look like anybody I know?" asked Mabel, hesitating to declare herself dissatisfied with the skeletonlove-tale, yet uncertain how to learn more. 

"A roundabout way of asking if she is passable in appearance, "Winston said, with his smile of conscious superiority. "Judge foryourself!" taking from his pocket a miniature. 

"How beautiful! What a very handsome woman?" the sister exclaimed atsight of the pictured face. 

"You are correct. She is, moreover, a thorough lady, andhighly-educated. Ridgeley will have a queenly mistress. The likenessis considered faithful, but it does not do her justice. "

He took it from Mabel, and they scanned it together; she restingagainst his shoulder. She felt his chest heave twice; heard himswallow spasmodically in the suppression of some mighty emotion, andthe palpable effort drew her very near to him. She never doubtedfrom that moment, what she had more cause in after days to believe, that he loved the woman he had won with a fervor of passion thatseemed foreign to his temperament as the evidence of it was to hisconduct. 

The September sun was near the horizon, and between the bowedshutters one slender, gilded arrow shot athwart the portrait, producing a marvellous and sinister change in its expression. Thelarge, limpid eyes became shallow and cunning; the smile lurkingabout the mouth was the more treacherous and deadly for itssweetness; while the burnished coils of hair brushed away from thetemples had the opaline tints and sinuous roll of a serpent. 

Mabel shrank back before the horror of the absurd imagination. 

Winston raised the picture to his lips. 

"My peerless one!"

CHAPTER III

UNWHOLESOME VAPORS. 

"DORRANCE!" repeated Frederic, after his betrothed, when sherehearsed to him in their moonlight promenade upon the piazza theleading incidents of her brother's wooing. "She lives near Boston, you say, and her mother is a widow?"

"Yes. What have you ever heard about her?"

"Nothing whatever. I was startled by the name--but very foolishly!I once knew a family of Dorrances--New Yorkers--but the father, aretired naval officer, was alive, and all the daughters weremarried. The youngest of them would be, by this time, much olderthan you judge the original of the miniature to be. "

"She is not more than twenty-two, at the most, " Mabel was sure. 

Frederic's hurried articulation and abstracted manner excited hercuriosity, and unrestrained by Winston's curb, it was not"quiescent. " The thought was spoken so soon as it was formed. 

"There was something unpleasant in your intercourse with them, then?or something objectionable in the people themselves? Could they havebeen relatives of this widow and her daughter? The name is not acommon one to my ears. "

"Nor to mine; yet we have no proof to sustain your supposition. Ishould be very sorry--"

He stopped. 

Mabel studied his perturbed countenance with augmented uneasiness. 

"Was not the family respectable?"

"Perfectly, my shrewd little catechist!" seeming to shake off anuncomfortable incubus, as he laughed down at her serious face. "Theyvaunted themselves upon the antiquity of their line, and were moreliberal in allusions to departed grandeur than was quite well-bred. When I knew them they were not wealthy, or in what they would havecalled 'society. ' Indeed, the mother kept a private boarding-housenear the law-school I attended. There were several sons--verydecent, enterprising fellows. But one lived at home, and a daughter, the wife of a lieutenant in the navy, whom I never saw. I boardedwith them for six months, or thereabout. "

"You never saw the daughter! How was that?"

"I must have expressed myself awkwardly if I conveyed any such idea. I did not meet the seafaring husband who was off upon a long cruise. The wife I met constantly--knew very well. You need not look at meso intently, love, as if you feared that some dark mystery lurkedbehind this matter-of-fact recital. If I do not tell you every eventof my former life, it is not because it was vile. I could notsustain the light of your innocent eyes if I had ever been guilty ofaught dishonorable or criminal. But even the follies and mistakes ofa young man's early career are not fit themes for your ears. And Iwas no wiser, no more wary, than other youths of the same age; wasapt to believe that fair which was only specious, and that I mightplay, uninjured, with edged tools. Nor had I seen you then, mytreasure--my snow-drop of purity! Mabel! do you know how solemn athing it is to be loved and trusted by a man, as I love and confidein you? It terrifies me when I think of the absoluteness of mydependence upon your fidelity--of how rich I am in having you--howpoor, wretched, and miserable I should be without you. I shall notdraw a free breath until you are mine beyond the chance of recall. "

"Nobody else wants me!" breathed Mabel in his ear, nestling withinthe arm that enfolded and held her tightly in the corner of thepiazza shaded by the creeper. "The danger of losing me is notimminent to-night, at all events, " she resumed, presently, with atouch of the sportiveness that lent her manner an airy charm inlighter talk than that which had engrossed her for the past hour. 

The evening was warm and still to sultriness, and the moonlight, filtered into pensive pallor through a low-lying haze, yet sufficedto show how confidingly Imogene leaned upon her attendant insauntering dowa the long main alley of the garden. Rosa was at thepiano in the parlor, singing to the enamored Alfred. Mrs. Sutton hadwithdrawn to her own room to ruminate upon the astounding disclosureof her nephew's engagement, while Winston bent over his study-tablebusy with the interrupted letter his aunt had seen in his portfolio. 

"There is no one here who has the leisure or the disposition tocontest your rights, you perceive, " said Mabel, running through alaughing summary of their companions' occupations. 

"Betrothals are epidemic in this household and neighborhood, "Winston was writing. "There are no fewer than three pairs of turtlescooing down stairs as I pen this to you, my bird of paradise. Thecase that next to mine--to ours--commands my interest is that of mysister. I came home to learn that the little Mabel I used to hold onmy knee had entered into an engagement--conditional upon mysanction--with that traditional tricky personage, a Philadelphialawyer--Mr. Frederic Chilton, at the door of whose manifoldperfections, as set forth by my loquacious aunt, you may lay theblame of this delayed epistle. I know nothing of this aspirant tothe dignity of brotherhood with myself, saving the facts that he istolerably good looking, claims to be the scion of an old Marylandfamily, and that self-conceit is apparently his predominantquality. "

"What is that?" asked Frederic, halting before the windows, of thedrawing-room, as a wild, sorrowful strain, like the wail of abreaking heart, arose upon the waveless air. 

Rosa was a vocalist of note in her circle, and she had neverrendered anything with more effect than she did the song to whicheven the preoccupied strollers among the garden borders stayed theirsteps to listen. Through the open casement Mabel and her lover couldsee the face of the musician, slightly uplifted toward themoonlight; her eyes, dark and dreamy, as under the cloud of manyyears of weary waiting and final hopelessness. Her articulation wasalways pure, but the passionate emphasis of every word constrainedthe breathless attention of her audience to the close of the simplelay:

 "Thy name was once the magic spell By which my thoughts were bound; And burning dreams of light and love Were wakened by the sound. My heart beat quick when stranger-tongues, With idle praise or blame, Awoke its deepest thrill of joy To tremble at thy name. 

 "Long years, long years have passed away, And altered is thy brow; And we who met so fondly once Must meet as strangers now. The friends of yore come 'round me still, But talk no more of thee, 'Twere idle e'en to wish it now, For what art thou to me?"

 "Yet still thy name--thy blessed name! My lonely bosom fills, Like an echo that hath lost itself Among the distant hills, That still, with melancholy note, Keeps faintly lingering on, When the joyous sound that woke it first Is gone--forever gone!"

"A neat conceit that last verse, and the music is a fair imitationof a dying bugle-echo!" said Winston Aylett to himself, resuming thewriting he had suspended for a minute. "That girl should take to thestage. If one did not know better, her eyes and singing togetherwould delude him into the idea that she had a heart. Honest Alfredevidently believes that she has, and that the patient labor of lovewill win it for himself. Bah!"

Frederic and Mabel retired noiselessly from their post ofobservation, as "honest Alfred" made a motion to take in his thehand lying prone and passive upon the finger-board. They exchanged asmile, significant and tender, in withdrawing. 

"We understand the signs of the times, " whispered Frederic, at theupper turn of their promenade. "Heaven bless all true lovers underthe sun!"

"Don't!" said Rosa, vehemently, snatching away her hand from hersuitor's hold. "Leave me alone! If you touch me again I shallscream! I think you were made up without nerves, either in the heartor in the brain--if you have any!"

Before the aghast Alfred rallied from the recoil occasioned by hergesture and words, her feet were pattering over the oaken hall andstaircase in rapid retreat to her chamber. 

"You are really happy, then?" queried Mabel. "Quite content?"

"Did I not tell you awhile ago that I was not satisfied?" returnedChilton. "Two months since I should, in anticipation of this hour, have declared that it would be fraught with unalloyed rapture. I washappier yesterday than I am to-day. It is not merely that we mustpart to-morrow, or that your brother's precautionary measures anddisapproval of what has passed between us have acted like ashower-bath to the fervor of my newly born hopes. I am willing thatmy life should be subjected to the utmost rigor of his researches, and another month, at farthest, will reunite us. Nor do I believe inpresentiments. I am more inclined to attribute the uneasiness thathas hovered over me all the day to physical causes. We will call ita mild splenetic case, induced by the sultry weather, and the veryslow on coming of the storm presaged by your dewless roses. "

He laughed naturally and pleasantly. Having confessed to what heregarded as a ridiculous succumbing of his buoyant spirit toatmospheric influences, he shook off the nightmare as if it hadnever sat upon him. 

Mabel was grave still. 

"There is something weirdly oppressive in the night, " she said, in alow, awed tone. "But the burden you describe has weighed me downsince morning. While Rosa was singing, I felt suddenly removed fromyou by a horrid gulf. What if all this should be the preparation tous for some impending danger?"

"Sweet! these are unwholesome vapors of the imagination. Nothing canbe a disaster that leaves us to one another, " was the text ofFrederic's fond soothing; and by the time Mrs. Sutton descended fromher chamber of meditation, to remind Imogene that the seeds of agueand fever lurked in the river-fogs, the couple from the piazza cameinto the lighted parlor, all smiles and animation, wondering, jocosely, what had become of the recent occupants of the apartment. 

Neither reappeared until breakfast-time next morning. Rosa was likefreshly-poured champagne, in sweet and sparkle. Alfred, rueful andlimp, as if the dripping clouds that verified Mabel's prediction hadsoaked him all night. He was dry and comfortable--to carry out thefigure--within twenty minutes after his beloved fluttered, like atame canary, into the chair next his own--in five more, was moretruly her slave, living in, and upon her smiles--adoring her verycaprices as he had never admired another woman's virtues--than hehad been prior to the brief, but tempestuous scene over night. Shewas the life of the party assembled in the dining-room. Imogene hadcaught cold, walking bareheaded in the evening air, and Tom condoledwith her upon her influenza and sore-throat too sincerely to dojustice to the rest of his friends and his breakfast. Mr. Aylett wasnever talkative, and his unvarying, soulless politeness to allproduced the conserving effect upon chill and low spirits that theatmosphere of a refrigerator does upon whatever is placed within it. Mrs. Sutton's motherly heart was yearning pityingly over the loverswho were soon to be sundered, while Mabel's essay at cheerfulequanimity imposed upon nobody's credulity. Frederic comportedhimself like a man--the more courageously because the host's coldeye was upon him, and he surmised that sighs and sentimentalitywould meet very scant indulgence in that quarter. Moreover, he wasnot so unreasonable as to descry insupportable hardships in thisparting. By agreement with Mr. Aylett and his sister, he was, if allwent prosperously, to revisit Ridgeley at the end of six weeks, whenhis design was to entreat his betrothed to name the wedding day. Theprospect might well support him under the present trial. He boreRosa's badinage gallantly, tossing back sprightly and tellingrejoinders that called forth the smiling applause of the auditors, and commanded her respectful recognition of him as a foeman worthyof her steel. 

"Nine o'clock, " said Winston, at length, consulting his watch, andpushing back his chair. "The carriage will be at the door in fifteenminutes, Mr. Chilton. The road is heavy this morning, and the stagepasses the village at ten. "

"I shall be ready, " responded Frederic. "I am sorry your carriageand coachman must be exposed to the rain. "

"That is nothing. They are used to it. I never alter my plan oftravel on account of the weather, how ever severe the storm. Thiswarm rain can hurt nobody. "

"It is pouring hard, " remarked Mrs. Button, solicitously. "And thatstage is wretchedly uncomfortable in the best weather. I wish youcould be persuaded to stay with us until it clears off, Mr. Chilton, and"--making a bold push--"I am sure my nephew concurs in mydesire. "

"Mr. Chilton should require no verbal assurance of my hospitablefeelings toward him and my other guests, " said Mr. Aylett, frigidly--smooth as ice-cream. "If I forbear to press him to prolonghis stay, it is in reflection of the golden law laid down for thedirection of hosts--'Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest. '"

"You are both very kind, but I must go, " Frederic replied, conciselyand civilly, following Mabel into the parlor, whither the othervisitors were fabled to have repaired. As he had guessed, hisbetrothed was the only person there; the quartette having dispersedwith kindly tact, for which he gave them due credit. 

"Don't think hardly of me, dear, " he began, seating himself besideher on the sofa. 

"Allow me to offer you a few of the finest cigars I have enjoyed formany years, " said Mr. Aylett, entering in season to check Frederic'smovement to encircle Mabel's drooping form with his arm. "You smoke, I believe? You may have an opportunity of indulging in this solacein an empty stage. At least, there is little probability that youwill be denied the luxury by the presence of lady passengers. Iprocured those in Havana, last winter. In case you should like themwell enough to order some for yourself, I will give you the addressof the merchant from whom I purchased them. "

He wrote a line upon a card, as he might sign a beggar'spetition--with a supercilious parade of benevolence--and passed itto the other, who accepted it with a phrase of acknowledgmentneither hearty nor grateful. Then the master of the house paced thefloor with a slow, regular step, his hands behind him; hiscountenance placidly ruminative, his thoughts apparently engagedwith anything rather than the pain upon the corner-sofa, whoseleave-taking he had mercilessly marred. Frederic dumb and furious;Mabel equally dumb and amazed to alarm, knowing as she did that herbrother's actions were never purposeless, sat still, their handsclasped stealthily amid the folds of Mabel's dress; their eyessaying the dear and passionate things forbidden to their tongues. Neither would feign indifference, or attempt a lame dialogue uponother topics than those that filled their minds. Mr. Aylett was notone to pay outward heed to hints when he chose to ignore them. Hekept up his walk until the carriage was driven around to the frontdoor, informed the parting guest that it awaited his commands, likewise that he would need all the time that remained to him if hehoped to catch the stage; without leaving the room, called to aservant to bring down Mr. Chilton's baggage, and did not lose sightof his sister's lover until the last farewell was said, and Fredericbestowed inside the vehicle. There was nothing offensively officiousor malicious in all this. Having declared as an incontrovertibledogma, that a ward could form no engagement without the formalsanction of her legal guardian, he saw fit to put the seal upon thedecision at this, their adieu, in a manner they were not likely toforget. An hour's harangue would not have imbued them with the senseof his authority, his determination to exercise it, and theirimpotency to resist it, as did this practical lesson. 

Mrs. Sutton could scarcely restrain her tearful remonstrancesagainst what was, to her perception, an act of arbitrary and wantoncruelty, and other spectators had their views upon the subject. 

"Very inconsiderate in Aylett! I wonder how he would like the samegame to be played upon himself!" commented Alfred, aside, to hisDulcinea. 

Her lip curled in disdainful amusement. 

"As if he had ever done an inconsiderate thing since he put off longclothes! There is method in all this, if we were clever enough tofathom it. "

Within herself, she determined that she would solve the enigmabefore she was a week older. 

Frederic cast one hasty, eager look at the portico, as the carriageturned out of the yard. Mabel stood in the foreground, her figureframed by the climbing roses drooping over the front steps. She wasvery pale, and, forgetful for the moment of the observation of thebystanders, leaned slightly forward, her eyes strained upon thecarriage-window--one hand laid upon her heart, the other restingagainst the pillar nearest her, as for support. She waved herhandkerchief, in response to his smile and lifted hat, andsimultaneously with this interchange of adieux her brother took herby the arm. 

"You are getting wet there, Mabel! Come into the house! It is well Ihave come back to look after you!"

CHAPTER IV. 

"FOUNDED UPON A ROCK. "

If Mrs. Sutton had raised horrified eyes and despairing hands uponlearning the date of her nephew's proposed marriage, it was becauseshe miscalculated his executive abilities, and the energy she hadnever until now seen fairly put forth. Within three days after hisreturn, the homestead was alive with masons, carpenters, painters, and upholsterers, engaged by the prompt bridegroom on his passagethrough Richmond; and so explicit were his orders as to the minutestdetail of the work appointed to each, that he could safely leave thescene of action at the time appointed for the flying trip northward, to which he had referred in his dialogue with Mabel on the afternoonof his arrival. 

The party of visitors had emigrated to other regions, a couple ofdays after Frederic Chilton's departure, with the exception of RosaTazewell, who accepted Mabel's invitation to prolong her sojourn, the more willingly since she "flattered herself she could be of usein the general upheaving of the ancient foundations, andestablishment of the new. If there was one thing she enjoyed aboveanother, it was a tremendous bustle--a lively revolution. "

She made her boast of personal utility good by installing herselfforthwith as Mrs. Sutton's aid-de-camp, and rendering herself so farindispensable in the work of reconstruction that Mr. Aylett deignedto ask her not to desert her post in his absence. 

"Yours is the genius of renovation, Miss Rosa, " the potentate waspleased to say in his handsomest style. "Do not, I beg of you, forsake my aunt and sister in their need. Let me feel that I leaveone head as the motive-power of the multitudinous hands. "

She agreed, in the same strain, to oblige him--a decision greetedwith satisfaction by the pair in whose behalf he besought herfriendly offices. The versatile invention and deft fingers of thelittle brunette were welcome to the heavily-taxed housekeeper, aswere her gay good-humor and words of cheer and affection to theyounger of her companions. The two girls became more confidential insix days than eighteen years of neigbborly intercourse had sufficedto make them. Mabel's innate delicacy and excellent common sensewould, in ordinary circumstances, have barred effusiveness upon thetheme nearest her heart, but love at nineteen is rarely discreet, even when the persuasives to communicativeness are less powerfulthan were the sorcery of Rosa's sympathy and the confessions thatpaved the way to answering and trustful communicativeness on herfriend's part. 

They were having what she called "a good, long, comforting, as wellas comfortable chat" over their sewing in Mabel's chamber on theafternoon of the eighth day of Winston's absence. The weather waslovely, with the mellow brightness and balmy airs that makeVirginian autumns a joy and glory until November is half spent, andthe atmosphere held, at sunset, the warmth and much of the radiancewhich had set the day--a perfect gem--in the heart of the goldenmonth. Into the eastern windows gazed the full moon, a crimson globeupon the hazy horizon, while Venus lay, large and tremulous, amongthe dying fires of the west. 

"'Lovers love the western star, '" quoted Rosa, merrily, takingMabel's work from her and throwing it upon the bed. "Come and enjoythe holy hour with me. "

They leaned together upon the window-sill, their young faces tintedby the changeful hues of the sky, both thoughtful and mute, untilRosa broke the silence by a heavy sigh. 

"O Mabel, you should be a happy, happy girl; blessed among women. You can love--freely and joyously--and have pride and faith in theone beloved. "

"As you will some day, " rejoined the other, drawing nearer to her, "when you, in your turn, shall know the unspeakable sweetness ofunquestioning faith--of utter dependence upon him to whom you havegiven your heart. "

"Utter dependence!" echoed Rosa. "That would mean utter wreck ofheart, hope--everything--should the anchor give way. It is ahazardous experiment, ma belle!"

The other looked down at her with simple fearlessness. 

"'For it was founded upon a rock!'" she repeated softly; yet theexultant ring of her accent vibrated upon the ear like a joyouschallenge. 

Rosa's fretful movement was involuntary. 

"Mine would drag in the sand at every turn of the tide, every riseof the wind, if I were to follow your advice, and say 'yes' to thepertinacious Alfred, " she said reproachfully. 

"Don't say advice, dear!" corrected the other. "I only endeavored toconvince you that there must be latent tenderness beneath yoursufferance of Mr. Branch's devotion; that if you really were averseto the thought of marrying him, you could not take pleasure in hissociety or enjoy the marks of his attachment which are apparent toyou and to everybody else. "

"Can't you understand, " said the beauty, petulantly, "that it is onething to flirt with a man in public, and another to cherish hisimage in private? There is no better touchstone of affection thanthe holiness and calm of an hour like this. If Frederic were withyou, the scene would be the fairer, the season more sacred for itsassociation with thoughts of him and his love. Whereas, my Alfred'sadoring platitudes would disgust me with the sunset, with the world, and with myself, for permitting him to haunt my presence and hangupon my smile--foppish barnacle that he is! If you knew how Idespise myself sometimes!"

"Dear Rosa! I shall never try again to persuade that you care forhim as a woman should for the man GOD intended her to marry. But whynot act worthily of yourself--justly to him, and reject himdecidedly?"

"Because"--her face shrewd and wilful as it had been sorrowful justnow--"I am by no means certain that I can do better than to marryhim. He is rich, good-looking (so people say!), well-born, gentlemanly, and pleasant of temper. An imposing array ofadvantages, you see! I might go further, and fare very much worse. We shall not expect to pass our days in gazing at sunsets andwalking in the moonlight, you know. It is not every woman who canmarry the man she loves best. While the right to select and to woois usurped by the masculine portion of the community, it must, perforce, be Hobson's choice with an uncountable majority offeminines. I should not complain. The stall allotted to me byHobson--alias Fate--might hold a worse-conditioned animal than myworshipping swain. "

"What a wicked rattle you are!" Mabel said, affecting to box herears. "I could not love you if I believed you to be in earnest. Asto your figure of the stabled steed--this disapproving customer hasthe consolation that she need not accept him, unless she wishes todo so. She has the invaluable privilege of saying 'no' as often andobstinately as she pleases. "

"I deny it, " said Rosa, perversely. "Parents, in this age, do notmake a custom of locking up refractory daughters in nunneries orgarrets until they consent to wed Baron Buncombe or my Lord Nozoo, but there are, nevertheless, compulsory marriages in plenty. Societywarns me to make a creditable match, upon penalty, if I decline, ofbeing pointed out to the succeeding--and a fast-succeedinggeneration it is! as a disappointed old maid--passée belle, whosquandered her capital of fascinations, and has become a pauper uponpublic toleration, while my mother, sisters, and brothers aregrowing impatient at my many and profitless flirtations, and anxiousto see me 'settled. ' My mother's pet text, since I was sixteen, hasbeen her prayerful desire that I, the last of her nestlings, shouldmake choice of a tenable bough and helpful partner, and set up aseparate establishment before she dies. When that event occurs, Ishall be, in effect, homeless--a boarder around upon my rebukefulrelatives, who 'always thought how my trifling would end, ' and whowill be forever scribbling 'vanitas vanitatum, ' upon the tombstoneof my departed youth--my day of beaux and offers. You may shake yourhead and look heroic with all your might! You are no better off thanI, should your brother see cause to refuse his consent to yourmarriage with Mr. Chilton. He could, and probably would, coerce youinto another alliance before you were twenty-one. There are so manyways of letting the life out of a woman's heart, when it is alreadyfaint from disappointment! The spirit is oftener broken byunyielding, but not seemingly cruel pressure, than by outrageousviolence. And Winston would show himself an adept in such arts, ifoccasion offered. "

"Rosa Tazewell! you are speaking of my brother, my friend andbenefactor! one of the best, noblest, most disinterested creaturesHeaven ever made!" cried Mabel, erect and indignant. "You have nowarrant--I shall never give you the right--to asperse him in mypresence. He is incapable of cruelty or unfairness. It is my duty toobey him, but it is no less a pleasure, for he is a hundred-foldwiser and better than I am--knows far more truly what is for my realadvantage. As to his conduct in this affair of Frederic and myself, yon cannot deny that it has been generous and consistent throughout. He has been cautious--never harsh!"

"So!" said Rosa, scrutinizing the flushed countenance of the other, her own full of intense meaning, "you HAVE had your misgivings!"

Mabel reddened more warmly. 

"Misgivings! What do you mean?"

"That the uncalled-for vehemence of your defence is a proof ofdisturbed confidence, of wanting belief in the infallibility of yoursemi-deity. The trailing robes of divinity have been blown aside bya chance breath of suspicion, and you had a glimpse of the clayfeet. I am glad of it. Scepticism is the parent of rebellion, andthe time is coming when fealty to your betrothed may demanddisloyalty to the power that now is. "

Mabel's smile was meant to be careless, but it was only uneasy, andgave the lie direct to her asseveration. 

"I have no apprehensions of such a conflict. Winston's word is asgood as another man's oath. It is pledged to my marriage withFrederic Chilton, in the event of the prosperous issue of hisinquiries into his, Frederic's, character and prospects. That thesewill be answered favorably, I have the word of another, who is everywhit as trustworthy. Where is there room for doubt?"

The brunette shook her head--unconvinced. 

"Have your own way! I can afford to abide the showing of the logicof events. "

"And I!" retorted Mabel, hastily, turning from her, withoutattempting to dissemble her chagrin, to answer a knock at the door. 

It was a servant, with two letters. The annoyance passed from herbrow, like the sheerest mist, as she read the superscriptions--onein her brother's handwriting, the other in Frederic's. 

Rosa interfered to prevent the breaking of the seals. 

"I am going to leave you to the undisturbed enjoyment of yourfeast, " she said, in her most winsome manner. "But--won't it tastethe sweeter if your antepast is the delight of forgiveness? Say youare not angry with me--mia cara!"

"You are a ridiculous child!" Mabel bent to kiss the pleading lips, then the great, melting eyes. "Who could be out of temper with youfor half a minute at a time? You did try my patience with yournonsense, but since it WAS nonsense, I have forgotten it all, andlove you none the less for your prankish humor--you gypsy!"

"She calls my prophecies humbug--turns a deaf ear to my warnings!"cried the incorrigible rattle, clasping her hands above her head androlling her eyes tragically. "I have a lively appreciation, at thisinstant, of Cassandra's agonies when Troilus named her 'our madsister!'--

 'Woe! woe! woe! Let us pay betimes A moiety of that mass of moans to come!'"

Laughing anew at her frantic rush from the chamber, Mabel sat downin the broad window-seat to read her love-letter. 

Frederic was too manly in feeling and habit of speech to deal inflorid rhapsodies, but each line had its message from his heart tohers. He loved her purely and in truth, and there was not a sentencethat did not tell her this, by inference, if not directly. Hetrusted her--and this, too, he told her, more as a husband might thewife of years than a lover of her he had won so lately. Their hopeswere the same and their lives, and she dwelt longest upon thesketched plans for the future of these. It brought him closer to herthan anything else--put her secret and reluctant imaginations ofevil, and Rosa's daring insinuations, out of sight and recollection. She read slowly, and with frequent pauses, that she might take inthe exquisite flavor of this and that phrase of endearment; setbefore herself in beauty and distinctness the scenes he portrayed asthe adornment of the prospect which was theirs. 

The second and yet more deliberate perusal over, she folded thesheet with lingering touches to every corner, thrust it into theenvelope, and drew it forth again to peep once more at thesignature--"Forever and truly, your own Frederic;" pressed it to herlips, then to her heart, and bestowed it securely in her writing-desk, before she unclosed her brother's epistle. 

With her finger upon the seal--a big drop of red wax, like apetrified blood-gout, stamped with the Aylett coat-of-arms--sheleaned through the casement to watch for the flutter of Rosa's whitedress among the vari-colored maples shading the lawn--sang a clear, sweet second to the song that ascended to her eyrie:

 "Why weep ye by the tide, ladye? Why weep ye by the tide? I'll wed ye to my youngest son, And ye shall be his bride. And ye shall be his bride, ladye, Sae comely to be seen; But aye she loot the tears down fa' For lock o' Hazeldean. "

"MY DEAR MABEL" [wrote the lord of Ridgeley]--"I wish you, so soonas yon receive this, to communicate with Jenkyns and Smytheconcerning the new parlor furniture I ordered from them. In talkingit over, Clara and I have decided that it had better be covered withmaroon, instead of green, as you advised. I enclose a sample ofdamask which they must match exactly. I would I write direct tothem, but think it likely that Jenkyns, the managing man of thefirm, is in your neighborhood at this time. He told me, when I wasin town, of his intention to visit Mrs. Wilson, his sister, Ibelieve, who lives on the White Oak road, about three miles fromRidgeley. Send for him, and put the samples into his hands. If hecannot get the precise color in Richmond, let him order it from NewYork. 

"The carpets for the parlor, dining-room, and Clara's chamber I havebought in Lowell. Clara accompanied me thither, and gave me thebenefit of her taste in the selection. I have resolved, also, topurchase wallpaper in Boston to match these. Say as much toJenkyns. I shall have the boxes directed to his care and instructhim further respecting making the carpets and hanging the paper whenI return. 

"Ask Roberts (the mason) whether it will be practicable to build afire-place in the large lower hall. Another chimney would be anunsightly appendage to the roof, but Clara agrees with me, sincestudying the plan of the house I brought on for her inspection, thata flue could be run through the closet in your room into the rearone of the west chimneys. She thinks the hall must be freezing coldin winter, and caught eagerly at my idea that a blazing fire at oneend would lighten the sombre effect of the oaken wainscot and loftyceiling. I proposed to tear down the panelling, but she washorrified at the thought. I could not take more pride and interestin preserving the antique character of the home of my forefathersthan does she. She will have it that the hall, thus improved, andhung with a few old pictures, some bits of ancient armor, andcarpeted with maroon and green will be truly baronial. You and shewill agree admirably in your enthusiastic love of the venerable, andin your aesthetic tastes. I congratulate myself hourly upon my goodfortune in securing such a companion for myself, and such aninstructress for yourself. You cannot fail to derive infinitebenefit from intercourse with her. 

"This brings me to another subject to which I desire to call yourimmediate attention. I wish her to select a couple of dressessuitable for your wear on the night of our reception-party, and atothers which will, undoubtedly, be given in our honor. She objectsto doing this unless I obtain from you a written request that sheshould thus aid me. She fears you may consider her action 'prematureand officious. ' Write to her at once, requesting her to do thissisterly favor for you, setting forth your distance from the city, the meagre assortment of the goods to be had in the Richmond stores, etc. , and giving her carte blanche as to cost and style. It will bean inestimable advantage to your appearance on the occasions namedshould she oblige you in this particular. I earnestly desire thatyou should look your best at your introduction to her. "

"'Maroon and green!' a 'baronial' hall, and new party-dresses forinsignificant me!" Mabel stopped to say aloud in great amusement. "What would my sage brother have said to such paltry memoranda sixmonths ago? He is an apt scholar, or he has an able teacher. Ah, well! love is a marvellous transmogrifier!"

With this apothegm from the storehouse of her lately acquiredwisdom, she passed to the next paragraph. 

"Now for another matter about which I meant to write to youyesterday, but I was prevented by our expedition to Lowell. Theevenings I of course devote to Clara. I have not been so engrossedby my own very important concerns as to neglect yours. I stopped aday in Philadelphia, illy as I could afford the time, to make suchinvestigations as I could, without exciting invidious suspicion, into the character of the person whom I found domesticated atRidgeley on my return from my summer tour. The information I pickedup in that cautious city was so meagre and tantalizing as to provokeme into the belief that he had selected his references with an eyeto the slenderness of their knowledge of his personal history. Accident, however, has since placed within my reach a means oflearning all that I wish to know. Without wearying you withexplanations, which, indeed, I have no time to write--being engagedto drive out with Clara in an hour from this time--I will transcribea portion of a letter received by me, two days since, from agentleman of unexceptional standing, and upon whose word you maysafely depend. 

"He says: 'In reply to your queries as to my acquaintanceship withone Frederic Chilton, now a practising lawyer in the city ofPhiladelphia, I would, if conscience permitted, repay your franknessby evasion of a disagreeable truth. But in the circumstances whichinduced your appeal, I have no option. Hesitation or concealmentwould be unkind and dishonorable. I knew the man you speak ofwell--I may say intimately, while we were fellow-students in the----law school, in 18--. He was then--what I have but too much reasonfor believing him at this day--a plausible, unprincipled man ofpleasure. Our intercourse, which commenced at the card-table, terminated with a severe horsewhipping I administered to him inpunishment of an offence offered a married lady--a relative of myown. Taking advantage of the protracted absence of her husband, whowas a naval officer, he offered her many attentions, received byherself as tokens of innocent and friendly regard, until he forgothimself so far as to make her open and insulting proposals, evenurging her to consent to an elopement, and threatening, in the eventof her refusal, to ruin her by infamous calumnies. Her father wasinfirm; her husband in a foreign land. His base persecution wouldhave met with no chastisement, had not I espoused the terrifiedwoman's cause. These are the bare facts of the case. He merited aflogging--as you, a chivalric Virginian, will admit. I--a Northernman, with cooler blood, but I hope, as true a sense of honor andright as your own--inflicted this, as I am prepared to testifybefore any number of witnesses. '"

[Mabel was reading very fast, her eyes hurrying from side to side ofthe page, her face blanching, and her hands more numb with everyword. ]

"The above is a verbatim copy of that portion of my friend's letterwhich pertains to your affair, " continued Mr. Aylett. "I shall writeto Mrs. Sutton's protege by the mail that carries this, informinghim of my opportune discovery, through no instrumentality of hisproviding, of the poverty of his claims to the title of gentleman, and the audacity of his pretensions to my sister's hand. Have whatletters, etc. , you have received from him ready packed to return tohis address when I come home. My principal regret, in the review ofthe unfortunate entanglement, is that he ever visited Ridgeley andwas known in the vicinity as your suitor. You will suffer from this, in the future, more than you can now suppose. A woman hardly everoutlives such a stigma. 

"You may expect me on Thursday next, the 21st, at which time I hopeto see most of the alterations I have ordered in an encouragingstate of forwardness. Should Jenkyns be in town when you get this, write out my directions clearly and in full, and send them, withsample of damask, by mail. 

"Your affectionate brother, "WINSTON AYLETT"

The clammy, nerveless hands dropped--the fatal sheet belowthem--into Mabel's lap. She did not cry out or moan. Things strickento the heart generally fall dumbly. It was not her cramped positionwithin the window-seat that paralyzed her limbs, nor the chill ofthe twilight that crept through vein and bone. For one sick secondshe believed herself to be dying, and would not have stirred amuscle or spoken a syllable to save the life which had suddenlygrown worthless--worthless, since she was never to see Fredericagain; be no more to him than if she had never laid her head uponhis bosom; never felt his kisses upon lip and forehead; never livedupon his words of love as rapt mortals, admitted in trances to thebanquet of the gods, eat ambrosia, and drink to divinest ecstacy ofnectar--the elixir of immortal life and joy, sparkling in goldenchalices. 

She had had her dream--ravishing and brief--but the awakening wasterrible as the struggle back to life from a swoon or deathfullethargy. As to thinking, I believe nobody thinks at such seasons. Nature shrinks in speechless horror at sight of the descendingweight, and when it has fallen, lies motionless, gasping in breathto enable her to support the intolerable anguish, not speculatinghow to avert the next stroke. Frederic and she were parted! Had notWinston said so! And when was he known to reverse a verdict! She hadnothing to do but sit still and let the waters go over her head. 

Rosa was seated upon the upper step of the west porch, her chincradled in her hand, her elbow on her knee, gazing on the darkeningsky, and crooning Scotch ballads in a pensive, dreamy way. Mabel, from her perch, eyed her as if she were a creature belonging toanother world--seen dimly, and comprehended yet more imperfectly. Yet it could not have been half an hour--thirty fleetingminutes--since the two had talked as dear friends out of the fulnessof their hearts. Where were the hopes and happy memories that hadmade hers then a garden of pleasant things, a fruitful field whichHeaven had blessed? In that little inch of time, the flood had comeand taken them all away. 

Would the dry aching in her throat and chest ever be less? Tears hadgushed freely and healthfully after her last leave-taking withFrederic--the looked farewell, which was all Winston's surveillancehad granted them. She had been wounded then by her brother'ssingular want of tact or feeling. She had not the spirit to resentanything to-night, unless it were that God had made and suffered tolive a being so wretched and useless as herself. She supposed it waswicked--but she did not care! She ought to be resigned to themysterious dispensations of Providence--that was the prescribedphraseology of pious people. She had heard the cant times withoutnumber. What more would they have than her utter destitution of loveand bliss? Was she not miserable enough to satisfy the sternestbeliever in purgatorial purification? to appease the wrath even ofHim who had wrought her desolation? It must be the judgment of aretributive Deity upon her idolatrous affection that she wasbearing--her worship of Frederic. Yes, she had loved him; she lovedhim now better than she did anything else upon earth--better thanshe did anything in Heaven. 

In the partial insanity of her woe and despair, she lifted her grayface and vacant eyes to the vast, empty vault, beyond which dwelther Maker afar off, and said the words aloud--spat them at Himthrough hard, ashy lips. 

"I love him! I love him! You have taken him from me--but I will lovehim for all that!"

Heaven--or Fate--her blasphemous mood did not distinguish the onefrom the other--was a robber. Her brother was pitiless as the deaththat would not answer to her call. Between them she was bereaved. 

It was but a touch--the lightest breath of natural feeling thatbroke up the hot crust, that shut down the fountain of tears--Rosa'svoice, tuneful and sad as a nightingale's, chanting the border-laysshe loved so well:

 "When I gae out at e'en. Or walk at morning air, Ilk rustling bush will seem to say I used to meet thee there. Then I'll sit down and cry, And live beneath the tree. And when a leaf falls in my lap, I'll oa' it a word from thee. "

She had sung it herself to Frederic the night before he left her, and as she finished the artless ballad, he took her in his arms andkissed her. 

As he would never do again!

"My darling! my darling!" she cried aloud. 

Then the grief-drops came in a flood. 

CHAPTER V. 

CLEAN HANDS. 

The servant who summoned Mabel to supper brought down word that shewas not feeling well, and did not wish any. 

"Not well! Bless me!" exclaimed Mrs. Sutton, starting up. "Rosa, love, excuse me for three seconds, please. I must see what is thematter. I do hope there is no bad news from--" (arrested by therecollection that there were servants in the room, she substitutedfor the name upon her lips)--"in her letters. "

"I don't think she's much sick ma'am, " said the maid. "She isa-settin' in the window. "

"Where I left her with her letters, an hour and more ago, " observedRosa. "Don't hurry back if she needs you, Aunt Rachel. I will makemyself at home; shall not mind eating alone for once. "

Not withstanding the array of dainties before her, she only nibbledthe edge of a cream biscuit with her little white teeth, andcrumbled the rest of it upon her plate in listlessness or profoundand active reverie, while the hostess was away. She, too, had herconjectures and her anxieties--a knotty problem to work out, and thelonger she pondered the more confident was she that she had graspedat least one filament of the clue leading to elucidation. 

Mabel had not stirred from her place--sat yet with her brother'sletter in her lap, her hands lying heavily upon it, although hermuslin dress was ghostly in the stream of moonlight flowing acrossthe chamber. She had wept her eyes dry, and her voice wasmonotonous, but unfaltering. 

"I am not really sick, aunt, but I have no appetite, and having agreat deal to think of, I preferred staying here to going to thetable, " was her answer to Mrs Sutton's inquiries. 

"Your hands are cold and lifeless as clay, my child. What is thematter? It is not like you to be moping up here, alone in the dark. "

"Won't you leave me to myself for a while, and keep Rosadown-stairs?" asked Mabel, more patiently than peevishly. "Beforebed-time I will see you in your room, and we can talk of what hasdisturbed me. "

"My daughter, " murmured the gentle-hearted chaperone, trying to drawthe erect head to her shoulder, as she stood by her niece. 

Mabel resisted the kindly force. 

"No, no, aunt. I cannot bear that yet. I have just begun to thinkconnectedly, and petting would unnerve me. "

This was strange talk from the frank-hearted child she had rearedfrom babyhood, and while she desisted from further attempts atconsolation, Aunt Rachel took a very sober visage back to thesupper-room with her, and as little appetite as Rosa had manifested. The meal was quickly over, and by way of obeying the second part ofMabel's behest, the innocent diplomatist begged Rosa to go to thepiano. 

"I always enjoy your delightful music, my dear. It makes the housemore lively. "

"Thank you, dear Mrs. Sutton. I should take pleasure in obligingyou; but if Mabel is out of sorts, I don't believe she will care tohave the house lively to-night, " was the amiable rejoinder. "Moreover, I am dying to finish 'David Copperfield. ' Will you allowme to curl myself up in the big chair here, and read for an hour?"

Mrs. Sutton gave a consent that was almost glad in its alacrity, andpretended to occupy herself with the newspapers brought by theevening mail, until she judged that Mabel had had season in which tocompose her thoughts. Then she muttered something about "breakfast, ""muffins, " and "Daphne, " caught up her key-basket, and bustled out. 

Rosa's book fell from before her face at the sound of the closingdoor. The liquid eyes were turbid; her features moved by somepassion mightier far than curiosity or compassion for her friend'sdistress. 

"I have done nothing--literally nothing, to bring this on!" was thereflection which brought most calm to her agitated mind. "If itshould be as I think, I am guiltless of treachery. My skirts areclear. My hands are clean! Yet there have been moments when I couldhave dipped them in blood that this end might be attained!"

Too restless to remain quiet, she tossed her book aside and wanderedfrom side to side of the room, halting frequently to hearken forMrs. Sutton's return, or some noise from the conference chamber thatmight alleviate her suspense. 

"I tried to put her on her guard, " she broke forth at length, bent, it would seem, upon self-justification against an invisible accuser. "I saw aversion in Winston's eye the day he came home to find theother here. He would never forgive his slave the presumption ofchoosing a husband for herself. Did I not tell her so? Yet this hascaught her like a rabbit in a trap--unprepared for endurance orresistance. The spiritless baby! Would I give him up, except withlife, if he loved me as he does her?"

It was not a baby's face that was confronting Mrs. Sutton's justthen. It was no weak, spiritless slave who sustained the peltingshower of her comments, her wonderment and her entreaties that Mabelwould refuse to abide by her brother's decision--her guardian thoughhe was--and if she would not write to Frederic with her own hand, empower her aunt to apply to him for an explanation of thedisgraceful mystery. 

"We should condemn no man unheard, " she argued. 

"It is but fair to give him an opportunity of telling his side ofthe story. "

"Winston's letter will inform him of what and by whom he isaccused, " said Mabel. "He will have the opportunity you speak of. Ishould not be content with my brother's action, were this not so. Ihave been over the whole ground again and again, since sunset. We--you and I--are powerless. This story is either true or false. Ifwhat we have read really happened, what could arise from ourcorrespondence with the offender against honor and virtue? It wouldbut complicate difficulties. If he is unjustly accused, he can proveit, and put his slanderers to shame without our promptings. Ourinterference would be an intimation that he needed ourchampionship. "

"I believe he will clear himself of every stain, " returned Mrs. Sutton earnestly. "This is either a vile plot concocted by somesecret foe, or the Frederic Chilton mentioned here, " pushing theletter away from her on the table, with a gesture of loathing, "isanother person. "

"That is very unlikely!"

Mabel leaned her forehead wearily upon her hand, and did not finishthe sentence immediately. 

"I will be candid with you, aunt, upon this subject, as I have triedto be in every other confidence with which I have burdened you. Frederic Chilton was a student in the law-school, which was alsoattended by Winston's correspondent, and at the date specified byhim. I have reason to think there was somethingunpleasant--something he wished to conceal from me, and perhaps fromeverybody else, connected with his stay there. He referred to itambiguously on the last evening of his visit here, as a folly, ayouthful indiscretion. I have the impression, moreover, that amarried woman was mixed up in this trouble, whatever it was--a lady, some years older than himself, whose husband, a naval officer, wasabsent upon a long cruise. This may be the germ of the story relatedhere, and it may have nothing whatever to do with it. "

In saying "here, " she pointed to the letter. Both avoided touchingit as it lay between them, the big seal uppermost, and looking morelike bright, fresh blood than ever, in the lamplight. 

"My dear, all this proves nothing--absolutely nothing--except thatthe shock and overmuch solitary musing have made you morbid andunreasonable. "

Mrs. Sutton assumed a collected air, and delivered herself with themien of one who was determined to submit to no trifling, and tocredit no scrap of evidence against her friend whichcounter-reasoning could set aside. 

"My husband's godson--we must remember he is that, Mabel!--couldnever be guilty of the infamous conduct ascribed to this Chilton byWinston Aylett's anonymous friend. I am accounted a tolerable judgeof character, and I maintain that it is a moral impossibility for myinstincts and experience to be so utterly at fault as these two menwould make you believe. As to the corroboration of your'impression, ' that would be consummate nonsense in the eye of thelaw. Let us sift the pros and cons of this affair as rational, unprejudiced beings should--not jump at conclusions. And I must say, Mabel"--was the consistent peroration of this address, uttered in amildly-aggrieved tone, while the blue eyes began to shine through arising fog--"it seems to me very singular--really wounds me--is notwhat I looked for in you--that you should rank yourself with my poorboy's enemies!"

"I, his enemy!" The word was a sharp cry--not loud, but telling ofunfathomed deeps of anguish, from the verge of which the listenerdrew back with a shudder. "I would have married him without a singleglance at the past! Let him but say 'it is untrue--all that youfear and they declare, ' and I would disbelieve this tale, instantlyand utterly, though a thousand witnesses swore to the truth of it. Or, let him be all that they say, I would marry him to-night, if Ihad the right to do it. But I promised--and to promise with anAylett is to fulfil--that I would be ruled by my guardian's will, should the investigation, to which Frederic himself did not object, terminate unfavorably for my hopes, and contrary to hisdeclaration. "

"It was a rash promise, and such are better broken than kept. "

"Your Bible, Aunt Rachel--to-night, I cannot call it mine!--commendshim who swears to his own heart and changes not, " replied the niece, with restored steadiness. "It would have been the same had I refusedmy consent to Winston's proposal. I am a minor, and who would waittwo years for me?"

"Anybody who loved you, provided your trust in him equalled his inyou, " said Mrs. Sutton, slyly. 

Mabel's answer was direct. 

"You want me to say that I do not believe this tale of Mr. Chilton'searly errors; to brand it as a mistake or fabrication. You insinuatethat, in reserving my sentence until I shall have heard both sidesof it, I show myself unworthy of the love of a true man; betray ofwhat mean stuff my affection is made. I suppose blind faith issublime! But for my part, I had rather be loved in spite of my knownfaults, than receive wilfully ignorant worship. "

The daring stroke at Mrs. Sutton's hypothesis of the inseparableunion between esteem and affection, excited her into an impoliticadmission. 

"My child, you make my blood run cold! You do not mean that youcould love a man for whose character you had no respect!"

"There is a difference between learning to love and continuing tolove, " said Mabel, sententiously. "But we have had enough of uselesstalk, aunt. In two days more Winston will be here. Until then, letmatters remain as they are. You can tell Rosa as much or as littleas you like of what has happened. She must suspect that somethinghas gone awry. To-morrow, I will look up this Mr. Jenkyns, anddeliver the messages with which I am charged--likewise consult themason about the 'baronial' fireplace, " smiling bitterly. 

"You never saw another creature so altered as she is, " Mrs. Suttonbewailed to Rosa, in rehearsing the scene. "If this thing shouldturn out to be true, she is ruined and heart-broken for life. Shewill become a cold, cynical, unfeeling woman--a feminine copy of hergranite brother. "

"If!" reiterated Rosa, testily. "There is not one syllable of truthin it from Alpha to Omega! I know he is your nephew, and that it isone af the Medo-Persian laws of Ridgeley that the king can do nowrong; but I would sooner believe that Winston Aylett invented theslander throughout, than question Fred Chilton's integrity. There isfoul play somewhere, as you will discover in time--or out of it!"

To Mabel, Frederic's spirited champion said never a word of theevent that held their eyes waking until dawn--each motionless assleepless lest her bed fellow should discover her real state. 

"I have had no share in causing the rupture. I am not called upon toheal it, " meditated she. "In this, the law of self-preservation ismy surest guide. "

Her resolve to remain neutral was sharply and unexpectedly testedthe next afternoon. 

The two girls went out for a ramble about four o'clock, taking thebeaten foot-path that led through cultivated fields, and betweenwooded hills, to a small post-town two miles distant. The day wassunless, but not chilly, and when they had outwalked the hearing ofthe murmur of rural life that pervaded the barnyard and adjacent"quarters, " the silence was oppressive, except when broken by thewhirr of a partridge, the melancholy caw of the crows, scared fromtheir feast upon the scattered grains knocked from over-ripe ears ofcorn during the recent "fodder-pulling, " and, as they neared it, bythe fretting of a rapid brook over its stony bottom. 

The pretence of social converse had been given up before the friendscleared the first field beyond the orchard. Rosa's exquisite tactwitheld her from obtruding commonplaces upon the attention of a mindtorn by suspense--distracted between disappointment and outragedpride, and Mabel had not besought her sympathy in her grievousstrait. They walked on swiftly, the one staring straight forward, yet seeing nothing; the other, although thoughtful, losing not onefeature of the landscape--the light-gray sky, the encircling forest, the yellow broom-straw clothing the hill-sides, the crooked fences, lined with purple brush, golden-rod, black-bearded alder and sumach, flaming with scarlet berry cones and motley leaves. It was herprinciple and habit to seize upon whatever morsels of delight weredropped in her way, and she had a taste for attractive bits ofscenery, as for melody. There was no reason why the evil estate ofher companion should debar her from quiet enjoyment of the autumnday. She was sorry that Mabel was suffering. It was unpleasant tosee pain or grief. Smiles were prettier than glum looks. She hopedshe had enough humanity about her to enable her to recognize thesefacts. But, in her soul, she despised the girl for her tacitacquiescence in her brother's decree; contemned her yet more for herpartial credence of the rumor of her lover's unworthiness. It was aswell, taking these things into account, that Mabel was notcommunicative with regard to the great change that had befallen hersince this hour yesterday, when she had exultingly proclaimed thather trust was "founded upon a rock. "

"Varium et mutabile semper faemina!" reflected Rosa, who knew thatmuch Latin--and attracted by the waving of the bright grassesbeneath the waves of the rivulet they were crossing, she stopped tolean over the railing and poke them aside from the stones with achincapin switch she had picked up a little way back. 

Mabel did not look around; apparently did not observe that shewalked on alone. 

"I dare say she would not miss me for the next mile!" soliloquizedthe idle lounger, snatching foam-flakes from their nestling-placesbehind the rocks, and watching them as they danced down the stream. 

Something, whiter and more regular in shape than they, lay upon themargin of the brook, partly concealed by a clump of sedge. A letter, with the address uppermost! Rosa's optics were keen. She easily madeout the direction upon the envelope from where she stood. It wasFrederic Chilton's name in Mrs. Sutton's quaint, old-fashioned"back-hand" chirography. An hour before, as Rosa now recollected, she had seen, from her window, a negro man take the path to thevillage, arranging some papers in the crown of his tattered strawhat. He had dropped this, the most important of all, probably instooping to drink from his hollowed palms at the spring-stream. However this might be, there it lay--the warning to the calumniatedlover that his traducers were making clean (or foul) work with hisfair fame in the quarter where he wished to stand at his best;perhaps citing him to appear and answer the damaging charges inperson before the same tribunal. 

"If she would only let me drop him a friendly line asking him, forher sake, to contradict this horrid slander!" the distraught matronhad sighed, last night, in her recapitulation of the conversationwith her obdurate niece. "But she will not hear of it. "

"I hardly think he would like it either, " Rosa had rejoined. "Itwould hint at distrust on your part or on hers. Mr. Aylett's lettershould be sufficient to elicit the defence you crave. "

"You are in the right, perhaps!" But Mrs. Sutton had lookedmiserably discontented. "Yet to be frank with you, Rosa, Winston isnot apt to be conciliatory in his measures when he takes it into hishead that the family honor is assailed. I am afraid he has writtenhaughtily, if not insolently, to poor Frederic. "

Rosa had no doubt of this, even while she answered, "Neitherhaughtiness nor downright insolence would prevent a man who has somuch at stake as has Mr. Chilton, from taking instant steps tore-establish himself in the respect of the family he desires toenter. This is a very delicate matter--take what view of it we may. Hadn't you better wait a few days before you interfere? Nothing canbe lost--something may be gained by prudent delay. "

"And I suppose Winston WOULD be very much displeased at myofficiousness, as he would term it, " had been Mrs. Sutton'sreluctant concession to her young guest's discreet counsels. "But itis very hard to remain quiet, and see everything going todestruction about one!"

She had evidently reconsidered her resolution to let things taketheir wrong-headed course, and in virtue of her prerogatives asmatch-maker and mender, had thrust her oar into the very muddywhirlpool boiling about the bark of her darling's happiness. 

Rosa wrought out this chain of sequences, with many other links, stretching far past present exigences and possibilities, ere Mabel'sfigure disappeared behind the shoulder of the hill rising beyond thebrook. Should Frederic Chilton receive that letter, in less than aweek--in three days, perhaps, for he was a man prompt to resolve andto do--he would present himself at Ridgeley to speak in his ownbehalf--an event Rosa considered eminently undesirable. CertainlyMabel's pusillanimity merited no such reward. She had no right toquestion the rectitude that one she professed to love, nor her auntthe right to act as mediator. If Mabel Aylett, with her found senseand judgment, and her inherent strength of will, would not hold fastto her faith in her affianced husband, and defy her brother tosunder them, let her lose that which she prized so lightly. 

If the epistle, soaking slowly there in the wet, had been committedto Rosa's charge, she would have scorned to intercept it; would havedeposited it safely and punctually in the post-office. As it was, ifshe left it alone, Frederic would never get it, and Mrs. Suttonremain unconscious of its fate--unless some other passer-by shouldperceive and rescue it from illegibility and dissolution; unlessMabel should espy it on their return-walk, or, coming back, the nextmoment, to seek her truant mate, catch sight of the snowy leaflet ofpeace in its snuggery under the sedge. 

A startled partridge flew over Rosa's head from the thither risingground, and in the belief that he was the harbinger of the approachshe dreaded, she dislodged the envelope from its covert, with aquick touch of her little wand, and it floated down the stream. 

Slowly--all too gradually at first--swinging lazily wound in theeddies, catching, now against a jutting stone, now entangled by ablade of grass--Rosa's heart in her throat as she watched it, lestMabel's footsteps should be audible upon the rocky path, Mabel's hatappear above the spur of the hill. Then the channel caught it, whirled it over and over, faster and faster, and sucked it downward. 

Mrs. Sutton was at the tea-table with the girls that evening, whenJohnson, the sable Mercury, showed himself at the door, to informhis superior that he had "got everything at de sto' she sent him furto buy. "

"You mailed the letters, Johnson?" said the mild mistress, ratheranxiously. 

"All on dem, Mistis!"

"The unconscionable liar!" thought Rosa, virtuously, "he ought to beflogged! But it is none of my business to contradict him. "

She did not say now, "My hands are clean!"

CHAPTER VI. 

CRAFT--OR DIPLOMACY!

"YOUR letter notifies me, in general terms, that the answersreturned to your inquiries as to my antecedents and presentreputation are the reverse of satisfactory. You feel constrained, you add, in view of the information thus obtained, to interdict myfurther intercourse with your sister or any other member of yourfamily. Since I cannot battle with shadows, or refute insinuationsthe drift of which I do not in the least comprehend, may I troubleyou to put the allegations to which you refer into a definite andtangible shape? Let me know who are my accusers, and what are theiniquities with which they charge me. The worst criminal againsthuman and divine laws has the right to demand thus much before he isconvicted and sentenced. 

"As to your prohibition of my continued correspondence with MissAylett, I shall consider her my promised wife, and write to herregularly as such, until you have made good your indictment againstme, or until I receive the assurance under her own hand and sealthat my conduct in thus addressing her is obnoxious to herself. 

"I have the honor, sir, of signing myself

"Your obedient servant, "FREDERIC S. CHILTON. "

The cool contempt of the reply to his imperative dismissal ofwhatever claims the presumptuous adventurer his aunt had encouragedbelieved he had upon Mabel's notice or affection, was likely to irkWinston Aylett as more intemperate language could not. It did more. It baffled him, for a time. He could, and he meant, to withhold thelover's letter from his sister's eyes. He could--and upon this alsohe was determined--command her, in the masterful manner thatheretofore had never failed to work submission, never to meet, speak, or write again to the man he almost hated; will her to forgether childish fancy for his handsome face and glozing arts, and inthe fulness of time, to bestow her in marriage upon a partner of hisown providing. He had no misgivings as to his ability to accomplishall this, if the blackguard aforesaid could be kept out of her wayuntil that remedial agent, Time, and lawful authority had a chanceto do their work. 

But he was openly defied to prevent communication between thebetrothed pair, unless his injunction had Mabel's endorsement; and, upon alighting from the stage at the village, on his return toRidgeley, he had taken from the post-office, along with theimpertinent missive addressed to himself, one for Mabel, superscribed by the same hand. From the first, he had no intentionof transferring it to the keeping of the proper owner, It wasforwarded in direct disobedience to his commands, and the writershould be made to understand the futility of opposition to these. For several hours, his only purpose respecting it was to enclose it, unopened, in an envelope directed by himself, and send it back tothe audacious author, by the next mail. He was balked in thisproject by no fastidious scruples as to his right thus to dispose ofhis ward's property. Nature, or what he assumed was naturalaffection, concurred with duty in urging him to hinder an allianceby which Mabel's happiness would be imperilled and her relativesscandalized. But when, in the solitude of his study, he vouchsafed asecond reading to Frederic's letter, preparatory to the response hedesigned should annihilate his hopes and chastise his impudence, adoubt of the efficacy of his schemes attacked him for the firsttime. "Under her own hand and seal, " were terms the explicitness ofwhich commended them to his grave consideration. His next thoughtwas to oblige Mabel to indite a formal renunciation of her unworthysuitor. There were several objections to this measure. 

Firstly, he disliked whatever smacked of scenic effect, and womenwere apt to get up scenes--hysterics, attitudes, and the like--upontrivial provocation, He wanted to get the thing over quietly andsoon. 

Secondly, he was not very sure that he should find in Mabel thedocile puppet she had appeared to him for so many years of tutelage. She had matured marvelously of late. Her very manner of meeting himthat afternoon impressed him by its self-possession and freedom fromthe emotion that used to gush from eyes and lips, in happy tears, and broken, delighted greeting at his approach. For aught he knew tothe contrary, she might have accepted his fiat as just, if notmerciful, and not a dream of rebellion been fostered thereby. Thegrave tranquillity of her demeanor might arise from the chasteninginfluences of the mortification she had sustained, and aconsciousness of ill-desert that bred humility. He would fain havebelieved all this, but until he broached the subject to her, hisincertitude could not be removed, and in a step so momentous as thatwhich he meditated, it behooved him to try well the solidity of theground beneath him. 

Lastly, our blood-prince of the kingdom of Ridgeley was, whether heconfessed it or not, acting under orders. 

"Be very tolerant with that poor little deceived sister of yours!"his fiancee had implored, her diamond eyes bedimmed byquick-springing damps of commiseration. "Recollect that theconsciousness of wasted love is always harder to bear than what iscommonly known as bereavement. If you find her refractory, bepatient and persuasive, instead of dictatorial. Craft often effectswhat overt violence would attempt in vain. "

"Craft!" The word struck unpleasantly upon the Virginia lordling'sear, and he echoed it with a suspicion of a frown upon his brow. "Iam not an adept in chicanery!"

"But you are a born diplomatist!" seductively. "And because I am ofthe same credulous sex as our mistaken little darling, you will notproceed to open warfare with her, even should she be both to resignher lover? It is the glory of the strong to show charity to the weakand erring. "

For her sake, then, our flattered diplomatist would try the effectof guile, instead of brutality, upon the helpless girl, the balanceof whose fate was grasped by his shapely hand. For one base second, the idea of attempting an imitation of his sister's handwritingflashed through his mind. But he was a gentleman, and forgery is nota gentlemanly vice, any more than is counterfeiting bank-notes. Finally, the author of craft--the subtle, refined virtue bepraisedby his bride-elect--the devil--came to his help. 

Mabel, like most other girls, had a dainty and fantastic taste inthe matter of letter-paper and envelopes. She used none but Frenchstationery, stamped with her monogram--a curious device, wrought intwo colors--and at the top of each sheet stood out in bas-reliefthe Aylett crest. With these harmless whimsies Frederic was, withoutdoubt, familiar. If his letter were returned to him, wrapped in ablank page, taken from her papetiere and within one of herenvelopes, it would not signify so much whose handwriting was uponthe exterior. Papetiere and writing-desk were in Mabel's bed-room, but she was in the parlor, practising an instrumental duet withRosa--a favorite with Miss Dorrance. Winston had brought it southwith him, and asked his sister to learn it forthwith, in just theaccent he used to employ when prescribing what studies she shouldpursue at school. There was nothing in his errand that he should beashamed of, he reminded himself with impatient severity, as hetraversed the upper hall on tip-toe to the western chamber. He had, on sundry previous occasions, sought, in the receptacles he wasabout to ransack, for sealing-wax, pencils, and the like trifles. Mabel was too wise a woman not to keep her secrets under lock andkey, and if there were private documents left in his way, he was toohonorable to pry into them. 

Shutting the door cautiously, that the snap and blaze might notbetray him, he struck a wax match, warranted to burn aminute-and-a-half, and raised the lid of the desk. His unseen butwily coadjutor had guided him cunningly. In fingering a heap ofenvelopes in order to find one large enough for his purpose, hebrought to light one addressed to "Mr. Frederic Chilton, Box 910, Philadelphia, Penn. "

Upon the reverse was a small blot that had condemned it in Mabel'ssight, as unfit to be sent to her most valued correspondent, andwhich she had not observed before writing the direction. Selectinganother, she had thrown this back carelessly into the desk, meaningto burn it when it should be convenient, and forgotten all about it. 

The livid dints were deep and restless in Winston's nostrils, asseen by the light of the tiny taper he raised to extinguish, whenhis prize was secured. The devil supplied him with another craftyhint, as he was in the act of folding one edge of Frederic's letterthat it might fit into the new cover. Why not strip off the letterentirely, that it might seem to have been opened, read, and thenflung back upon the writer's hands with contumely? Half-way measureswere unsafe and foolish. Stratagem, to be efficient, should be notonly deft, but thorough; else it was bungling, not diplomacy. Hishand did not shake in divesting the closely-written sheet of itswrapping, but in one respect his behavior was in consonance with thegentlemanly instincts he vaunted as a proof of pure old blood. Heaverted his eyes lest he should see a line the lover had penned tohis mistress. The letter slipped smoothly into the quarters preparedfor it--smoothly as Satan's mark usually goes on until his tool hasmade his damnation sure. 

"Well done?" said Diabolus. 

"That was a clever hit!" chimed in his assistant, complacently, after he had put the sealed envelope into his portfolio forsafe-keeping, and burned the torn one he had removed. "Nobody but anidiot or a madman would persist in following a girl up after such aquietus. "

He replied to Frederic's note to himself shortly and with disdain, using the third person throughout, and informing Mr. Chilton withunmistakable distinctness that Miss Aylett had offered no oppositionwhatever to her brother's will in this unfortunate affair. So far ashe--Mr. Aylett--could judge, her views coincided exactly with hisown. Mr. Chilton's letters and presents should be returned to him atan early day, and thus should be finished the closing chapter of avolume which ought never to have been begun. 

All this done to his mind, he set the door of his room ajar, andwatched for Mabel's passage to hers. 

He had not to wait long. The young ladies had fallen into habits ofearly retiring of late--a marked change from their olden fashion ofsinging and talking out the midnight hour. Himself unseen, Mr. Aylett scrutinized the two mounting the stairs side by side--Rosa'sdark, mobile face, arch with smiles, while she chattered over a bitof country gossip she had heard that afternoon from a visitor, andthe weary calm of Mabel's visage, the drooping eyelids, and, whenappealed to directly by her volatile comrade, the measured, notmelancholy cadence of her answer, The girl had had a sore fight, andwon a Pyrrhian victory. She was not vanquished, but she was worsted. Some men, upon appreciating what this meant, and how her grief hadbeen wrought, would have had direful visitings of conscience, surrendered themselves to the mastery of doubts as to therighteousness and humanity of stringent action such as he had justconsummated. He was not unmoved. He really loved his only sister, asproud, selfish men love those of their own lineage who have neverdisputed their supremacy, and derogated from their importance. Hesaid something under his breath before he called her, but the cursewas not upon himself. 

"The low-bred hound!" he muttered. "This is his doing!"

Mabel halted at the stair-head, the blood suddenly and utterlyforsaking her cheeks when he spoke her name, although his addresswas purposely kind, and, he thought, inviting. 

"Can you spare me a moment?" he continued, smilingly, to win heradvance. "I will not detain you long. I know you are agonizing tohave your talk out, Miss Rosa. "

Rosa laughed, with a saucy retort, and turned into her chamber. 

Mabel entered her brother's, and without speaking, took the seat heoffered. She was to be sentenced, and she must reserve her forces tosustain the pain without a groan. 

"You saw Jenkyns--did you not?" began Mr. Aylett, with the manner ofone at peace with himself, and those of his fellow-men whoseexistence he chose to acknowledge. 

"I did. He made memoranda of your orders, and said all should bedone as you wished. "

"I ordered the masons, this evening, to begin the hall-chimneyto-morrow. While the work is going on, you had better occupy someother bed-room. I shall hurry it forward, day and night, or it willnot be done in season for us when we return from our bridal-tour. The carpets must be down, and the paper dry by the fifteenth atfarthest. Clara bought your dresses, and offers to have them made, if you will send her an accurate measurement. You are about herheight, although not so well-proportioned. Your figure is angular, where hers is round. She is your senior by several years, yet onemight easily mistake her for a girl of twenty, her complexion is sofresh. Her twenty-five years show themselves in nothing except herease of manner, maturity of thought, and elegance of diction. "

He would have sneered at this strain in another as hyperbolical andfatuous. The absurdity of it in his mouth consisted mainly in thecool arrogance of the assumption that whatever belonged to him wasabove adverse criticism, and would be maligned if it were referredto without appending an encomium. Much of fervor might and didmingle in his thoughts of her he was to wed, but none warmed hisenumeration of her perfections. He did nothing con amore, unless itwere exalting the dignity and glory of the Aylett name, andmaintaining his right to support their ancient honors. 

Mabel did not respond to his gratuitous praise of the fair andbenevolent Clara. While he was talking, he seemed to recede a greatway from her; his tones to ring hollowly upon her hearing, his formto grow indistinct. Was he playing with her suspense, or could it bethat he--a being with heart and nerves like hers, had no conceptionof the rack on which she waa stretched--no suspicion that every oneof his deliberate sentences was a turn of the screw that redoubledher torture? The Ayletts were a strong-willed race, and sherepressed all sign of suffering save intense pallor; made this lesspalpable by screening her eyes from the lamp-light with a paper shetook from the table, and thereby throwing her features into deepshadow. 

"But it is not my intention to trouble you with matters that concernme alone, " he pursued, without varying his intonations. "As Ianticipated, Mr. Chilton declines explaining the ugly story relativeto his eariier career of dissipation and deceit, which I forwardedto you. He indulges, instead, in a tirade of personal abuse touchingmy right to control you, declaring his purpose to pursue you withletters and attentions until he shall be discarded by yourself. Wewill not stay to discuss the gentlemanliness and delicacy of hisbehavior in this regard. I merely declare, that, having had a fairopportunity of honest confession or denial of statements detrimentalto his principles and pursuits, and having shirked both, he hasplaced himself outside the pale of respectful consideration. Has hewritten to you since his receipt of my letter?"

"No!"

Mabel was staring at a figure in the carpet, on a line with herfeet. Had she regarded her brother never so attentively, she wouldhave detected no change in his countenance. He did not preparequestions without also studying how to deliver them. 

"I am glad he has the moral decency to forbear carrying out histhreat of persecution. "

He could say it with the greater hardihood in the remembrance thatthe "persecution" had been attempted. 

"I wish he had written!" rejoined Mabel, abruptly, but withoutpassion. "He was right to protest against accepting his dismissalfrom any other than myself. "

She had not removed her eyes from the spot on the carpet, or loweredthe paper screen. She looked like a statue and spoke like anautomaton. 

Mr. Aylett's nostrils quivered ominously. 

"Is it your wish to recommence the correspondence I have ended?"

"You know that I would strike off my right hand sooner than do it. But if he had written to me, I should have answered his letter, ifit had been only to bid him farewell. Since he has not chosen to dothis, I cannot take the initiative. "

If Winston had never entertained a favorable opinion of his ownsagacity prior to hearing this avowal, it would have forced itselfupon him now. How timely was the thought, how felicitous theaccident, that had aided him to ward off the disaster of renewedintercourse!

Involuntarily his fingers crept nearer to the closed portfolio. 

"No good could have come of that!" returned he coldly. "When anamputation is to be performed, wise people submit to it withoutuseless preliminaries. The exchange of farewells in this case wouldbe inexpedient in the highest degree. You would compromise yourselfby continued acknowledgment of this fellow's acquaintance. My willis that you and the world should forget, as soon as it can be done, that you ever saw or heard of him. The connection was degrading. "

"Don't abuse him, brother! Let the knowledge that we are partedforever, satisfy your resentment. Since he has not appealed to mefrom your verdict, I am left to suppose that, upon second thoughts, he has resolved to acquiesce in your will. I do not blame him forthe change of purpose. " Still impassive in feature and voice, stillnot withdrawing her fixed gaze from that one point upon the floor. "He, too, has pride, and it matches yours. I do not say mine. Iquestion, sometimes, if I have any. "

"If your conjecture be correct, you cannot object to return theletters you have already received from him, " said Winston, pressingon to the conclusion of a disagreeable business. "Since you are notlikely to add to your stock of these valuables, you do not care toretain them, I suppose? I believe the rule is total surrender ofsouvenirs when a rupture is pronounced hopeless. "

"I shall keep them a week longer!"

She assigned no reason for the resolution, and her manner, withoutbeing sullen, aggravated her brother into wrath, the effusion ofwhich was a withering sneer. 

"Your hope in his repentance is creditable to the strength--orweakness--of woman's love. But have your way. The illustrious recordof his former life is a powerful argument in favor of clemency. In aweek, then!"

He nodded dismissal, wheeled his chair around to the table, dipped apen in the standish, and pulled an account-book toward him. 

He was surprised and not pleased, nevertheless, that Mabel retiredwithout other reply than a simple "Good-night, " said without temper, or any evidence of excitement. A month before, a milder sarcasm, thelightest breath of reproof, would have brought her to his feet in aparoxysm of tears, to implore pardon for her contumacy, and topromise obedience for all time to come. She was getting beyond hiscontrol the while she offered no open resistance to his government. Was sorrowful shame, or her infatuation for the adventurer he cursedin his heart by his gods, the influence that was petrifying her intothis unlovely caricature of her once bright and affectionate self?

She presented herself, unsummoned, in his study at the expiration ofthe period she had designated, a pacquet in her hand, neatly done upand sealed. 

"I will trouble you to direct it, " was all she said, as she laid itbefore him. 

"This is done of your own free will--remember!" he said, impressively. "In after years, should you be so unreasonable as toregret it, there must be no misconception on the subject between us. If you wish, at this, the eleventh hour, to draw back, I shall notoppose you. "

"You will write the address, then, if you please!" was Mabel'sreply, showing him the surface intended for it. 

Then she left him. 

"A sensible girl, after all! a genuine Aylett, in will andstoicism!" commented the master of the situation, beginning in hisround, legible characters, the inscription he hoped never to traceagain. "So endeth her first lesson in Cupid's manual!"

He never knew that Mrs. Sutton had bolstered the Aylett will andstoicism into stanchness at this closing scene. In a fit ofdespondency, she had that morning imparted to Mabel the fact thatshe had written to Frederic, ten days before, and had no answer, although she had besought an immediate one. 

"I have expected him confidently every day for a week, " shelamented. "I didn't suppose he would stay at Ridgeley, after whathas happened; but there's the hotel in the village, and, as I toldhim, he could accomplish more by an hour's talk with you than byfifty letters. It is very mysterious--his continued silence! Healways appeared so frank and reasonable. Nothing else like it hasever occurred in my experience--and I have had a great deal, mydear!"

"I am sorry you wrote, aunt, " replied Mabel, sorrowfully dignified. "Sorry you have subjected yourself to unnecessary mortification. Iam past feeling it for myself. We cannot longer doubt that Mr. Chilton desires to hold no further communication with any of us. "

Within the hour she made up the pacquet and carried it to herbrother. 

CHAPTER VII. 

WASSAIL. 

ALMOST sixteen months had passed since the dewless Septembermorning, when Mabel had gathered roses in the garden walks, and herbrother's return had shaken the dew with the bloom from her youngheart. It was the evening of Christmas-day, and the tide of wassail, the blaze of yule, were high at Ridgeley. Without, the fall of snowthat had commenced at sundown, was waxing heavier and the windfiercer. In-doors, fires roared and crackled upon every hearth;there was a stir of busy or merry life in every room. About thespacious fire-place in the "baronial" hall was a wide semicircle ofyoung people, and before that in the parlor, a cluster of elders, whose graver talk was enlivened, from time to time, by the peals oflaughter that tossed into jubilant surf the stream of the juniors'converse. 

Nearest the mantel, on the left wing of the line, sat the threemonths' bride, Imogene Barksdale, placid, dove-eyed, and smiling asof yore, very comely with her expression of satisfied prettinessnobody called vanity, and bedecked in her "second day's dress" ofazure silk and her bridal ornaments. Her husband hovered on theoutside of the ring, now pulling the floating curls of a girl-cousin(every third girl in the country was his cousin, once, twice, orthrice-removed, and none resented the liberties he, as a marriedman, was pleased to take), anon whispering in the ear of a bashfulmaiden interrogatories as to har latest admirer or rumoredengagement; oftenest leaning upon the back of his wife's chair, alistener to what was going on, his hand lightly touching herlace-veiled shoulders, until her head gradually inclined against hisarm. They were a loving couple, and not shy of testifying theirconsent to the world. 

"They remind me irresistibly of a pair of plump babies sucking atopposite ends of a stick of sugar candy!" Rosa Tazewell said asideto the hostess, as the latter paused beside her on her way throughthe hall to the parlor. 

"The candy is very sweet!" replied Mrs. Aylett, charitably, butlaughing at the conceit--the low, musical laugh that was at oncegirlish in its gleefulness, yet perfectly well-bred. 

Mr. Aylett heard it from his stand on the parlor-rug, and sent aquick glance in that direction. It was slow in returning to thegroup surrounding him. He had married a beautiful woman--so saideverybody--and a fascinating, as even everybody's wife did notdispute. In his sight, she was simply and entirely worthy of thedistinction he had bestowed upon her; an adornment to Ridgeley andhis name. From their wedding-day, his deportment toward her had beenthe same as it was to-night--attentive, but never officious;deferential, yet far removed from servility; a manner that, withoutapproximating uxoriousness, yet impressed the spectator with theconviction that she was with him first and dearest among women; apartner of whom, if that were possible, he was more proud thanfond--and of the depth and reality of his affection there could beno question. 

She declined to seat herself in the circle, although warmlyimportuned by her guests thus to add brilliancy to their joyousparty, yet remained standing near Rosa, interested and amused by therunning fire of compliment and badinage that went to make up thehilarious confusion. If the family record had been consulted, thetruth that she had counted her thirty-second summer would haveastonished her husband, with her new neighbors. Apparently she wasnot over twenty-five. Her chestnut hair was a marvel for brightnessand profusion, her broad brow smooth and white, her figure, asWinston had described it to his sister, rounded, even tovoluptuousness, yet supple as it had been at fifteen. In her cheeks, too, the blushes fluctuated readily and softly, and when she smiled, her teeth showed like those of a little child in size and purity. Her voice matched her beauty well, never loud, always melodious, with a peculiar, gliding, legato movement of the graceful sentences, for the pleasing effect of which she was indebted partly to Nature, and much more to Art. She appeared on this evening in a green silkdress, matronly in shade and general style, but not devoid ofcoquettish arrangement in the square corsage, the opening of whichwas filled with foam-like puffs of thulle, threatening, when herbust heaved in mirth or animated speech, to overflow the sheenyboundaries. A chaplet of ivy-leaves encircled her head, and trailedupon one shoulder; her bracelets were heavy, chased gold withoutgems of any kind; a single diamond glittered--a point of prismaticlight at her throat. Her wedding-ring was her only other ornament. 

"Very sweet, I grant you, and very flavorless, " returned Rosa. "Andalarmingly apt to turn sour upon the stomach. I had rather be fedupon pepper lozenges. "

"You should have been born in the Spice Islands, " said the hostess, tapping the dark cheek with her fore finger. "But we could not spareyou from our wassail-cup to-night, my dear Lady Pimento!"

She bent slightly, that the flattery might reach no other ear. Shemay not have known that Rosa's Creole skin was at a wretcheddisadvantage, as seen against the green silk background; but othersnoticed it, and thought how few complexions were comparable to thewearer's. She had the faculty of converting into a foil nearly everywoman who approached her. 

"Thank you! So I am pimento, am I?" queried Rosa, pertly. "And eachof us is to personate some condiment--sweet, ardent, or aromatic--inthe exhilarating draught! Which shall Mr. Harrison here be?

"'Cinnamon or ginger, nutmeg or cloves?'"

"That is a line of a college drinking-song!"

The speaker was a young man of eight-and-twenty; who sat betweenRosa and Mabel, and whose attentions to the latter were marked. Ofmedium height, with sandy hair and whiskers, high cheek-bones, thatgave a Gaelic cast to his physiognomy; which was remarkable fornothing in particular when at rest, and followed somewhat tardilythe operations of his mind when he talked, he would probably havebeen the least likely person present to rivet a stranger's noticebut for the circumstance that he played shadow to the host's sisterand was Mrs. Aylett's brother. With regard to the feelingentertained by the former of those ladies for him, there were manyand diverse opinions, but his sister's partiality was unequivocallyexhibited. Of her three brothers, this--the youngest, the leasthandsome, and the only bachelor--was her favorite. She took pains toapprise his fellow-guests of this interesting fact by petting himopenly, and exerting her fullest artifices to bring him out inbecoming colors. 

"It is, " she answered him now, admiringly. "What a memory you have, my dear Herbert! Now I am never positive with whom to credit aquotation. I recollect, since you have spoken, that your famousquartette-club ussd to render that with much eclat, and how it wasencored at the brilliant private concert you gave in behalf of somepopular charity or other. "

Thus encouraged, Mr. Dorrance proceeded to enlarge the fragment:

 "Nose, nose, jolly red nose! Where got you that jolly red nose? Nutmeg and ginger, cinnamon and cloves, These gave me this jolly red nose. '

"You did not quote the third line correctly, Miss Tazewell. "

"Never having been a college bacchanalian, I am excusable for theinaccuracy, " she retorted. "I did not even know where I picked upthe foolish bit. Having ascertained the origin to be of doubtfulrespectability, I shall never use it again. "

"My sister has alluded to our quartette-club, " pursued Mr. Dorrance, turning from the caustic beauty to Mabel, without noticing theimpertinent thrust. "It was the most successful thing of the kind Iever knew of, being composed of thoroughly-trained musicians--amateurs, of course--and practising nothing but classic music, theproductions of the best masters. There is something both instructiveand elevating in such an association. "

"Especially when the theme of their consideration is the 'Jolly RedNose, '" interposed the wicked minx at his other elbow. 

Two giddy girls tittered, unawed by Mrs. Aylett's proximity and herbrother's owl-like stare at his critic. 

"You may not be aware, Miss Tazewell, that the lyric to which youhave reference is celebrated, both for its antiquity, and thepleasing harmonies that must ever commend it to the taste of thetrue lover of music; although I allow that to a disciple of themodern and more flimsy school of this glorious art, it may seempuerile and ridiculous, " he remarked, in grandiose patronage. Then, again to Mabel, "There were four of us--as I said--all students. What is it, Clara?"

"I have dropped my bracelet upon the floor, between you and MissTazewell, " stooping to shake out Rosa's full skirts from which thetrinket fell with a clinking sound. 

Three gentlemen darted forward to pick it up, but her husband notedapprovingly that while she accepted it graciously from the luckyfinder, and thanked the others for their kindly interest in the fateof her "bauble, " she held out her arm to her brother, that he mightclasp it again in its place. Affable always, winning whomsoever shechose to admiration of her personal and mental endowments, she neverdeparted from matronly decorum. The company agreed silently, or inguarded asides, that she was charming. No tongue--even the mostreckless or venomous--ever lisped the dread word, levity, inconnection with her name. 

"Take care, my dear brother! you will pinch me!" those near heardher say, and she twisted the golden circlet that the clasp might beuppermost. 

Rosa's alert ear caught the hurried murmur which succeeded, and wasmuffled, so to speak, by her affectionate smile of gratitude. 

"What were you about to say? Will you never learn prudence?"

"The dove has talons, then?" mused the eavesdropper, "But what washe in danger of revealing?"

If the interdicted revelation had connection, close or remote, withthe famous quartette club, he kept well away from it after thisreminder, beginning, when he resumed his seat, to discourse upon thecomparative excellence of wood and coal fires, of open chimney-places and stoves. 

Mrs. Aylett smiled an engaging and regretful "au revoir" to thecircle, and passed on to look after the comfort and pleasure of herelder visitors, and Rosa soon discovered that her awakened curiositywould be in no wise appeased by listening to the steady, patteringdrone of Mr. Dorrance's oration. Oratorical he was to a degree thatexcited the secret amusement of the facile Southern youths abouthim. With them, the art of light conversation had been a study fromboyhood, the topics suitable for and pleasing to ladies' earscarefully culled and adroitly handled. To amuse and entertain wastheir main object. Erudite dissertations upon science andliterature; abstruse arguments--whatever resembled a moral thesis, a political, religious, or philosophical lecture met with the sureban of ridicule from them, as from the fair whose devoted cavaliersthey were. If they laughed, when it was safe and not impolitic to doso, at the ponderous elocution of the Northern barrister, theymarvelled exceedingly more at Mabel's indulgence of his attentions. That a girl, who, in virtue of her snug fortune and attractive face, her blood and her breeding, might, as they put it, have the "pick ofthe county, " if she wanted a husband, should lend a willing ear tothe pompous platitudes, the heavy rolling periods of this alien toher native State--a man without grace of manner or beauty--in theirnomenclature, "a solemn prig, " defied all ingenuity of explanation, was an increasing wonder outlasting the prescribed nine days. Herode with the ill assurance of one who, accustomed to the sawdustfloor, treadmill round, and enclosing walls of a city riding-school, was bewildered by the unequal roads and free air of the breezycountry. He talked learnedly of hunting, quoting written authoritiesupon this or that point, of whom the unenlightened Virginians hadnever heard, much less read; equipped himself for the sport in abewildering arsenal of new-fangled guns, game-bags, shot-pouches, and powder-horns, with numerous belts, diagonal, perpendicular, andhorizontal, and in the field carried his gun a la Winkle; never, byany happy accident, brought down his bird, but was continuallyoutraging sporting rules by firing out of time, and flushing coveysprematurely by unseasonable talking and precipitate strides inadvance of his disgusted companions. 

Yet he was not a fool. In the discussion of gravermatters--politics, law, and history--that arose in the smoking-room, he was not to be put down by more fluent tongues; demolishedsophistry by solid reasoning, impregnable assertions, and an arrayof facts that might be prolix, but was always formidable--in short, sustained fully the character ascribed to him by his brother-in-law, of a "thoroughly sensible fellow. "

"No genius, I allow!" Mr. Aylett would add, in speaking of hiswife's bantling among his compatriots, "but a man whose industry andsound practical knowledge of every branch of his profession willmake for him the fortune and name genius rarely wins. "

With the younger ladies, his society was, it is superfluous toobserve, at the lowest premium civility and native kindliness ofdisposition would permit them to declare by the nameless andinnumerable methods in which the dear creatures are proficient. ToRosa Tazewell he could not be anything better than a target for thearrows of her satire, or the whetstone, upon the unyielding surfaceof which she sharpened them. But she showed her prudential foresightin never laughing at him when out of his sight, and in Mabel's. Atlong ago as the night of Mr. Aylett's wedding-party at Ridgeley, hersharp eyes had seen, or she fancied they did, that the hum-drumgroomsman was mightily captivated by the daughter of the house, andshe had divined that Mrs. Aylett's clever ruses for throwing the twotogether were the outworks of her design for uniting, by a doublebond, the houses of Dorrance and Aylett. She knew, furthermore, thatHerbert Dorrance had travelled with the Ridgeley family for threeweeks in October, and that he had now been domesticated at thehomestead for ten days. Mrs. Aylett's show of fondness for him waslaughable, considering what an uninteresting specimen of masculinityhe was; but the handsome dame was too worldly-wise, too sage a judgeof quid pro quo, to entice him to waste so much of the time he wasaddicted to announcing was money to him, for the sake of a good sointangible as sisterly sentimentality. 

Unless there were some substantial and remunerative ulterior objectto be gained by his tarrying in the neighborhood, cunning Rosabelieved that "dear Bertie" would have been packed off to Buffalo, or whatever outlandish place he lived in, so soon as the bridalfestivities were over, and not showed his straw-colored whiskersagain in Virginia in three years, at least, instead of running downto the plantation every three months. 

"If such an ingredient as the compound, double-distilled essence offlatness is to be infused into the wassail-cup, it is he who willsupply it!" thought the spicy damsel, with a bewitching shrug of theplump shoulder nearest him, while engaged in a lively play of wordswith a gentleman on her other hand. "What can possess Mabel toencourage him systematically in her decorous style, passes my powersof divination. Maybe she means to use him as a poultice for herbruised heart. In that case, insipidity would be no objection. "

Mabel had not the air of one whose heart is bruised or torn. Thatshe had gained in queenliness within the past year was not evidenceof austerity or the callousness that ensues upon the healing of awound. The Ayletts were a stately race, and the few who, while shewas in her teens, had carped at her lack of pride because of herdisposition to choose friends from the walks of life lower than herown, and criticised as unbecoming the playful familiarity thatcaused underlings and plebeians--the publicans and sinners of thearistocrat's creed--to worship the ground on which she trod--thecensors in the court of etiquette conferred upon her altereddemeanor the patent of their approbation, averring, for thethousandth time, that good blood would assert itself in the long runand bring forth the respectable fruits of refinement, self-appreciation, and condescension. The change had come over her byperceptible, but not violent, stages of progression, dating--Mrs. Sutton saw with pain; Rosa, with enforced respect--from the sunsethour in which she had read her brother's sentence of condemnationupon her then betrothed, now estranged, lover. After that oneevening, she had not striven to conceal herself and her hurt insolitude. Neither had she borrowed from desperation a brazen helmetto hide the forehead the cruel letter had, for a brief space, laidlow in the dust of anguished humiliation. 

If a whisper of her disappointment and the attendant incidents creptthrough the ranks of her associates, it died away for want ofconfirmation in her clear level-lidded eyes, elastic footfall andthe willingness and frequency with which she appeared and played herpart in the various scenes of gayety that made the winter succeedingher brother's marriage one long to be remembered by thepleasure-seekers of the vicinity. She had not disdained theassistance of her sister-in-law's judgment and experience in thechoice of the dresses that were to grace these merry-makings, and, thanks to her own naturally excellent taste, now tacitly disputedthe palm of elegant attire with that lady. Her Christmas costume, which, in many others of her age, would have been objected to bycritical fashionists, as old-maidish and grave, yet set off her palecomplexion--none of the Ayletts were rosy after they reached man'sor woman's estate--and heightened her distingue bearing into regalgrace. Yet it was only a heavy black silk, rich and glossy as satin, cut, as was then the universal rule of evening dress, tolerably lowin the neck, with short sleeves; bunches of pomegranate-blossomsand buds for breast and shoulder-knots, and among the classic braidsof her dark hair a half-wreath of the same. 

She had the valuable gift of sitting still without stiffness, andnot fidgetting with fan, bouquet, or hand-kerchief, as she listenedor talked. Rosa's mercurial temperament betrayed itself, everyinstant, in the bird-like turn of her small head, the fluttering orchafing of her brown fingers, and not unfrequently by an impatientstamp, or other movement of her foot that exposed fairy toe andinstep. Contemplation of the one rested and refreshed the observer;of the other, amused and excited him. Mr. Dorrance's phlegmaticnature found supreme content in dwelling upon the incarnation ofpatrician tranquillity at his right hand, and he regarded theactions of his frisky would-be tormentor very much as a placid, well-gorged salmon would survey, from his bed of ease upon thebottom of a stream, the gyrations of a painted dragon fly overhead. 

A lull in the geteral conversation--the reaction after a heartylaugh at a happy repartee--gave others besides Mabel the opportunityof profiting by his learned remarks. 

"But does not that seem to yon a short-sighted policy, " he wasurging upon his auditor, with the assistance of a thumb andforefinger of one hand, joined as upon a pinch of snuff, and tappingthe centre of the other palm; "does not that appear inexcusableprofligacy of extravagance, which fells and consumes whole surfaceforests of magnificent trees--virgin growth--(I use the term as itis usually applied, although, philosophically considered, it isinaccurate) giants, which centuries will not replace, instead ofseeking beneath the superficial covering of mould, nourishing these, for the exhaustless riches, carboniferous remains of antediluvianwoods, hidden in the bowels of your mountains, and underlying yourworn-out fields?"

Rosa was shaking with internal laughter--she would give no escapeexcept through her dancing eyes. 

Indeed, Mr. Dorrance's was the only staid countenance there, asMabel said, pleasantly, moving her chair beyond the bounds of thering, "I, for one, find the combustion of the upper forest growthtoo powerful, just at this instant. This is a genuineChristmas-storm--is it not? Listen to the wind?"

In the stillness enjoined by her gesture, the growl of the blast inthe chimney and in the grove; the groaning, tapping, and creaking ofthe tree branches; the pelting sleet and the rattle of casements allover the house brought to the least imaginative a picture ofout-door desolation and fireside comfort that prolonged the hush ofattention. Tom Barksdale's pretty wife slipped her hand covertlyinto his tight grasp, and their smile was of mutual congratulationthat they were brightly and warmly housed and together. Rosa, preternaturally grave and quiet, lapsed into a profound study of themountain of red-hot embers. Several young ladies shuddered audibly, as well as visibly, and were reassured by a whispered word, or theslightest conceivable movement of their gallants' chairs nearertheir own. 

"I think we have the grandest storms at Ridgeley that visit ourcontinent, " resumed Mabel thoughtfully. "I suppose because the housestands so high. The wind never sounds to me anywhere else as it doeshere on winter nights. "

Yielding to the weird attraction of the scene invoked by her fancy, she arose and walked to the window at the eastern extremity of thehall, pulling aside the curtain that she might peer into the wilddarkness. The crimson light of the burning logs and the lamp raysthrew a strongly defined shadow of her figure upon the piazza floor, distinct as that projected by a solar microscope upon a sheetedwall; sent long, searching rays into the misty fall of the snow, past the spot from which she had her last glimpse of FredericChilton, so many, many months agone, showing the black outline ofthe gate where he had looked back to lift his hat to her. 

What was there in the wintry night and thick tempest to recall thewarmth and odor of that moist September morning, the smell of thedripping roses overhead, the balmy humidity of every breath shedrew? What in her present companion that reminded her of the lovingclasp that had thrilled her heart into palpitation? the earnestdepth of the eyes that held hers during the one sharp, yet sweetmoment of parting--eyes that pledged the fealty of her lover's soul, and demanded hers then and forever? His conscience might have beensullied by crimes more heinous than those charged upon him by herbrother and his friends; he might--he HAD--let her go easily, as oneresigns his careless hold upon a paltry, unprized toy; but when herhand had rested thus in his, and his passionate regards penetratedher soul, he loved her, alone and entirely! She would fold thisconviction to her torpid heart for a little while before she turnedherself away finally from the memories of that love-summer andbattle-autumn of her existence. If it aroused in the chilled thingsome slight pangs of sentiency, it would do her no hurt to realizethrough these that it had once been alive. 

She saw a shadow approaching to join itself to hers upon thewhitened floor without, before Mr. Dorrance interrupted her reverieby words. 

"The fury of the tempest you admire proves its paternity, " he said, with a manifest effort at lightness. "It emanates from the vastmagazines of frost, snow, and wintry wind that lie far to thenorth-east even of my home, and THAT is in a region you would thinkdrear and inhospitable after the more clement airs of of your nativeState. "

"We have very cold weather in Virginia sometimes, " returned Mabel, still scanning the sentinel gate-posts, and the pyramidalarbor-vitae trees flanking them. 

Her gaze was a mournful farewell, but she neglected none of theamenities of hospitality. She was used to talking commonplaces. 

"We feel it all the more, too, on account of the mildness of thegreater part of the winter, " she subjoined. 

"Allow me!" said the other, looping back the curtain she had untilnow held in her hand. "Whereas our systems are braced by a moreuniform temperature to endure the severity of our frosts, and high, keen blasts. "

"I suppose so, " assented Mabel, mechanically, and unconscious ashimself that meaning glances were stolen at them from the firesidecircle, while the hum and conversation was continuous and louder, for the good-natured intent on the speakers' part to afford thesupposed lovers the chance of carrying on their dialogue unheard. 

"But our houses are very comfortable--often very beautiful, " Mr. Dorrance persevered, keeping to the scent of his game, as a trainedpointer scours a stubble-field, narrowing his beat at everycircuit; "and the hearts of those who live in them are warm andconstant. It is not always true that

 "'The cold in clime are cold in blood; Their love can scarce deserve the name. 

"I have thought sometimes that that feeling is strongest and mostenduring, the demonstration of which is guarded and infrequent, asthe deepest portion of the channel is the most quiet. "

If his philosophical and scientific talk were heavy and solid, hispoetry and metaphors were ponderous and labored. Yet Mabel listenedto him now, neither facing nor avoiding him, looking down at herhands, laid, one above the other, upon the window-sill, the image ofmaidenly and courteous attention. 

Why should she affect diffidence, or seek to escape what she hadforeseen for weeks, and made no effort to ward off? She had come tothe conclusion in October that Herbert Dorrance would, when theforms he considered indispensable to regular courtship had been gonethrough with, ask her to marry him, and coolly taken her resolutionto accept him. This morning, on the reception of a handsomeChristmas gift from him, and discovering in his actions somethingmore pointed than his customary punctilious devoirs, and in hisdidacticism the outermost of the closing circle of pursuit she hadfurthermore concluded that his happy thought was to celebrate thefestal season by his betrothment. She was quite ready for thedeclaration, which, she anticipated, would be pompous and formal. She would have excused him from "doing" the poetical part of it;but, since it was on the programme, it was not her province tointerfere. 

"I am no enthusiast, " he next averred, --Rosa would have said, veryunnecessarily--"the tricks of sighing lovers are beyond--orbeneath--my imitation. I could not 'write a sonnet to my mistress'eyebrow, ' or move her to tearful pity by sounding declarations of myadoration of her peerless charms, and my anguish at the bareimagination of the possibility that these would ever be another's. But, so far as the earnest affection and sincere esteem of an honestman can satisfy the requirements of a good woman's heart, yoursshall be filled, Mabel, if you will be my wife. I have admired youfrom the first day of our meeting. For six months I have been trulyattached to you, and seriously meditated this declaration. Yourbrother is satisfied with the exhibit I have made of my affairs andmy prospects, and sanctions my addresses. I can maintain you morethan comfortably, and it shall be one of the principal aims of mylife to consult your welfare in all my plans for my own advancement. I have been settled in the large and flourishing city of Albanyabout seven years, and--ignoring the trammels of mock humility, letme say to you--have, within that period, gained to a flatteringextent the confidence of the most respectable portion of thecommunity; have built up an excellent and growing businessconnection, and secured the entree of the best society there. Theseare the pecuniary and social aspects of the alliance I propose foryour consideration. Through my sister, and by means of the intimateassociation into which her marriage with your brother has drawn youand myself, you have been enabled, within the twelvemonth that haselapsed since our introduction, one to the other, to learn whateveryou wished to know with respect to my personal character, my tastes, temper, and habits. It has given me heartfelt pleasure to discoverthat these are, in the main, analogous to your own. I have builtupon this similarity--or harmony would be the better word--sanguinehopes of our future happiness, should you see your way clear toaccept my proffered hand, consent to link your future with mine. "

"I beg to lay the 'ouse in Walcot Square, the business and myself, before Miss Summerson, for her acceptance, " said magnanimous Mr. Guppy, thus clinching his declaration that "the image he hadsupposed was eradicated from his 'art was NOT eradicated. "

It was more in keeping with Rosa's character than Mabel's torecollect the comic scene in the book they had read together lately, but the latter did remember it at this instant, and despite themomentous issues involved in her immediate action, was stronglytempted to laugh in her wooer's solemn face. 

Then--so abrupt and fearful are the transitions from the extremes ofone emotion to another--arose before her another picture. As in adissolving view, she beheld herself walking with Frederic Chilton inthe moonlighted alleys of the garden; midsummer flowers blooming tothe right and left, her head drooping, in shy happiness, as thelily-bell bows to shed its freight of dew; his face glowing with theardor of verbal confession of that he had already sought to expressby letter--heard his fervent, pleading murmur, "Mabel! look up, mydarling! and tell me again that you will not send me away beggaredand starving. I cannot yet believe in the reality of my bliss!"

These were the love-words of an "enthusiast"--these---

The vision vanished at the short, hard breath, she drew inunclasping her locked hands, and lifting her grave, tranquil eyes tothe level of her suitor's. 

"I will follow your example in repudiating spurious sentiment, Mr. Dorrance. I believe you to be a good, true man and that theattachment you profess for me is sincere. I believe, moreover, thatmy chances of securing real peace of mind will be fairer, should Icommit myself to your guardianship, than if I were to surrender myaffections to the keeping of one whose vows were more impassioned, who, professing to adore me as a divinity, should yet be destituteof your high moral principle and stainless honor. When I was youngerand more rash in judgment and feeling, I was led into a sad mistakeby the evidence of eye, ear, and a girl's imagination. I ought totell you this, if you have not already heard the story. I will notdeceive you into the persuasion that I can ever feel for you, or anyother man, the love, or what I thought was love, I knew in the fewbrief weeks of my early betrothal. But you must know how that ended, and I have no desire to repeat the mad experiment of risking myearthly all upon one throw of fate. If friendship--if esteem, andthe resolve to show myself a worthy recipient of your generousconfidence--will content you, all else shall be as you wish. "

In her determination to be candid, to leave him in no uncertainty asto her actual sentiments, she had concerted a response but a degreeless stilted than his proposal. She would have been ashamed of ithad he appeared less gratified. 

His dull eyes brightened; his face flushed and beamed with unfeigneddelight, and in his transport he said the most natural and gracefulthing that ever escaped him during his wooing. 

"I am content! The second love of Mabel Aylett must ever be more tome than the first of any other woman!"

True, he nearly spoiled all the next minute, by producing from hispocket a wee velvet case, from which he extracted a valuable diamondring, and proceeded, then and there, in the shadow of theaccommodating curtain, to fit it upon her finger. He had foreseenthat she would not be hardly won, and with characteristic providencehad prepared himself for the event. 

The blood leaped to Mabel's temples and the fire to her eye, at theprompt seal set by the practical non-enthusiast upon the contract, but she bit her lip, and submitted after a second of thought. Heowed his exemption from rebuke to her memory of his latestutterance. She could not mistake the tone of genuine feeling, andshe overlooked the breach of taste that followed; treasured up theheart-saying as one of the few souvenirs she cared to preserve ofhis courtship. 

"If he is content, I need not be miserable, " was the consolatoryreflection with which she took upon herself her new and bindingobligations. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FACE AT THE WINDOW. 

MRS. AYLETT was in her best feather that night; the suavechatelaine, the dutiful consort; the tactful warder of theinteresting pair whose movements she had not ceased to watch fromthe moment they took their places with the party about thefire-place in the hall until she, alone of all the company, sawHerbert Dorrance draw the diamond signet from its receptacle, andthe sparkle of the jewel as it slipped to its abiding-place uponMabel's finger. 

Lest something unusual in their look or behavior should excite thesuspicions of their companions, make them the focus of inquisitiveobservation and whispered remark, the diplomate passed again intothe hall, sweeping along in advance of them when they deserted theircurtained recess, and would have joined the rest of the company. 

"Are we to have no dancing this evening?" she said, in hospitablesolicitude. "It wants an hour yet of supper-time. The exercise willdo you all good, particularly the young ladies, who have not stirredbeyond the piazzas to-day. I have been waiting for an invitation toplay for you, but my desire for your welfare has overcome nativehumility. Will you accept my services as your musician?"

The suggestion was acceded to by acclamation, and while onegentleman led her to the grand piano which stood between the frontwindows of the drawing-room, and another opened a music-book whichshe named, a set was quickly formed in the long apartment, thesoberer portion of the crowd ranging themselves along the walls aslookers-on. 

Mrs. Aylett was a proficient in dance-music. She never volunteeredto perform that which she was not conscious of doing well. She hadoccasionally taken the floor for a single quadrille, to oblige afavored guest--always a middle-aged or elderly gentleman--or movedthrough a cotillion with ease and spirit as partner to her husband, but she declined dancing, as a rule; was altogether indifferent tothe amusement, while she delighted to oblige her friends by playingfor them whenever and as long as they required her aid. Withoutsaying, in so many words, that she disapproved of the waltz forunmarried ladies, and frowned upon promiscuous dancing for matrons, she yet managed to regulate the social code of the neighborhood inboth these respects, was imitated and quoted by the most discreet ofchaperones and belles. 

Mr. Dorrance was Mabel's partner; Rosa stood up with RandolphHarrison, a gay youth, who was her latest attache; Tom Barksdale ledout a blushing, yet sprightly school-girl, and Imogene was hisvis-a-vis supported by an ancient admirer, who had comforted himselffor her preference for another man by falling in love with aprettier woman. The room was decorated with garlands of runningcedar--a vine known in higher latitudes as "ground-pine, " and whichcarpeted acres of the Ridgeley woods. The vases on the mantel werefilled with holly, and other gayly colored berry boughs, whileroses, lemon and orange blossoms, mignonette and violets from theconservatory were set about on tables and brackets, blending fresherand more wholesome odors with those of the Parisian extracts waftedfrom the ladies' dresses and handkerchiefs. 

Mr. Aylett had--accidentally, it would seem--his wife understoodthat the action was premeditated--stationed himself at an angle tothe piano that allowed him a fair view of her, and did not grudgethe merriest bachelor there his share of enjoyment, while he couldkeep furtive watch upon the changeful countenance, the Sappho-likehead, and the delicate hands which one could have thought made themusic, rather than did the obedient keys they touched. The weddedlovers had taste and pride in equal proportions, and a parade oftheir satisfaction in one another for the edification or amusementof indifferent spectators would have been revolting to both, but theray that sped from half-averted eyes, from time to time, and wasreturned by a kindling glance, also shot sidelong beneath droppedlashes, said more to each other than would a quarto volume ofstereotyped protestations and caresses, such as Tom Barksdale dealtout profusely to his beauteous Imogene. Clearly, neither Mr. NorMrs. Winston Aylett was fond of sugar-candy. 

Mabel's faith in the sincerity of her sister-in-law's agreeablesayings and ways was not invariable nor absolute. She liked herafter a certain fashion; got along swimmingly with her, the amazedpublic decided "SO much better than could have been expected, andthan was customary with relations by marriage, and not by descent;"yet her more upright nature and different training helped her todetect the petty artifices with which Clara cajoled the unwary, moulded the plastic at her will. But she had never questioned thereality of her love for Winston. As a wife, her deportment wasexemplary, her devotion too freely and consistently rendered to haveits spring in policy or affectation. She gloried in her handsome, courtly lord, and in his attachment for herself. Whether she wouldhave espied the same causes for loving exultation in him, had hebeen a poor clergyman or merchant's clerk, was an irrelevantconsideration. The master of Ridgeley was not to be contemplatedapart from the possessions and dignities that were his inalienablepedestal. Clara Dorrance was a clever woman, and she had given thesedue weight in accepting his hand; and they may have had theirinfluence in moving her to unceasing, yet unobtrusive endeavor tomake herself still more necessary to his happiness, to strengthenher hold upon him by every means an affectionate and beloved wifehas at her command. She had done well for herself--she was thinkingwhile he concluded as silently within himself that the slightpensiveness tempering the expressive face was its loveliest dress. 

She--beautiful and penniless, ambitious, and a devotee ofpleasure--yet dependent for food and clothing upon her mother'slife-interest in an estate, not one penny of which would revert toher children at her decease; without kindred and without society inthe elegant suburb they had inhabited for four or five years, mighthave been elated at a less brilliant match than that she had made. The "best people" of the aforesaid suburb were exclusive; slow toform intimacies with their unaccredited neighbors, and very hasty inbreaking them at the faintest whiff of a doubtful or taintedreputation. And of the second best the Dorrances had kept themselvesclear. Having met and captivated her wealthy lover on a rarelyfortunate summer jaunt, made in company with her eldest brother, hiswife, and two relatives of the last-named, Clara did not repel himor disgust the best people of Roxbury by indiscreet raptures over, or exhibition of, her prize. 

"I feel with you an invincible repugnance to throwing open ourhearts to the inspection of the unsympathizing world, at the mostsacred moment of our lives, " she said, in stating her preference fora quiet morning-wedding, a family breakfast, and instant departureupon their bridal-trip. "If I begin to invite my friends andneighbors, our cottage--lawn and garden included--would not containthem, and after all were asked whom I could rememher, as many morewould be mortally offended at being forgotten. "

The bridegroom gladly acquiescing, with a compliment to her womanlydelicacy, the ceremony was performed in the presence of the bride'snearest relatives; an elegant repast was served, at which theDorrance plate made an imposing show, and Clara turned her back uponthe scenes and reminiscences of her past life to commence the worldanew. 

Yes, she had done very well for herself--how wonderfully well sheknew better than did any one else, and at this date she had freshcause for self-gratulation. Through her, Herbert, her favoritebrother, was likely to form an alliance which would be a timely andsubstantial stepping-stone to his aggrandizement and wealth. Therewere more reasons why she should hold her head higher--why the bloodshould clothe her cheek with a richer carmine, and a smile encirclethe mouth, as one swift glance took in the spacious, luxurious room, thronged with well-dressed aristocrats, her husband the stateliest, most honored of them all, yet her fond thrall; the splendid apparelin which his wealth had bedecked her, the queen of the scene--morereasons, I say, for the ineffable thrill of pleasure that coursed, arapid, intoxicating stream, through her veins, than gratefulaffection for the author of all these goods. With a Sybarite's dreadof pain and loneliness, she seldom trusted herself to look at thedark curtain in the background, against which her latter-day gloriesshone the more dazzlingly. But to-night she felt safe upon herthrone--sat, the lady of kingdoms, sultana in the realm of herspouse's heart and in his domain, and could stare full upon thepast--could measure, without shuddering, the height of her actualand assumed estate above--

Mr. Aylett stepped forward in haste and concern at the deadly pallorthat overspread her face--the look of horror, fear, loathing, beforewhich smile and brightness fled, blasted into wretchedness. Therevellers stopped in their giddy measure at the discordant jangle, preluding a dead silence. 

Mabel, chancing in the evolutions of the set to be nearest thewindow, and noting the direction of the fainting woman's eyes, wasquick enough to see a shadow flit across the yellcw square of lightupon the snowy floor of the portico--a man's shape, as it appearedto her, crouching and slinking out of view into the darkness. 

"She saw something, or somebody, through the window, and wasfrightened, " she said, in a low voice, checking Tom Barksdale andanother gentleman, who would have pressed with the inconsideratecrowd toward the senseless figure Mr. Aylett had laid upon the sofa. "Will you see what it was?"

The request cleared the room directly of all the men of theassembly, with the exception of Winston and Dr. Ritchie, a youngphysician, who was superintending the administration of restorativesto Mrs. Aylett. 

She was reviving rapidly when the search party gave in their report. There were fresh tracks upon the piazza, and these they had tracedto the back of the house, losing them there in the drifting snow, the wind blowing like a hurricane, and ploughing what had fallen andwhat was descending into constantly changing heaps. But thewatch-dogs had been unchained, and four of the negro men detailed assentinels, the gentlemen engaging to make the round of the premisesagain before bed-time. 

The effect of this communication was the reverse of tranquillizingupon the patient. The wild, terrified look in her eye resembled theunreasoning fear of lunacy as she seized her husband's arm. 

"Indeed, indeed they must not. It is not right or safe to make sucha serious matter of my foolish nervousness. I am not sure there wasany one there! It was probably an optical delusion. I was plunged ina reverie, thinking of happy, peaceful, lovely things"--with thesickly feint of a meaning smile into his face--"and, happening tolook at the window, I fancied that I saw"--with all her self-commandher voice failed here, and she put her hand before her eyes for amoment before she could go on--"I thought I saw--SOMETHING! It mayhave been a human face--it may have been the shadow of the curtains, or the reflection of the lights upon the glass; but it startled me, appearing so abruptly. Please say no more about it. If it was aliving creature, it must have been one of the servants, tempted bycuriosity to peep at the dancers. "

"It will prove to be a costly indulgence to him, if I can discoverwho the rascal was, " said Mr. Aylett, decisively. "I would not havehad you so startled for the worth of all the lazy hounds on thepremises. "

His wife laid her hand upon his. 

"It is Christmas night, my love, and the poor fellow is excusable. He showed excellent taste. It was a very pretty scene. I shall notsoon forgive myself for throwing it into such 'admired disorder. 'Miss Scott"--[to a musical spinster]--"may I tax your politeness sofar as to ask you to take my seat at the piano? I must go to my roomfor a few minutes, " raising her finger smilingly to her displacedivy wreath. "If you would testify your tolerance of my folly, pleasego on with your amusement. I shall be encouraged to return when Ihear the music. "

Her collected, urbane self once more, she took her husband's arm, and passed through the opening ranks of her friends, bowing to thisside and that, with apologetic banter and graceful words ofregret--still very pale, but changed in no other respect. 

"A singular episode in an evening's entertainment, " said Mr. Dorrance, leading Mabel to her stand in the re-forming set. "I neverknew Clara to succumb before to any type of syncope or asphyxia. Sheis a woman of remarkable nerve and courage. And, by the way, howpreposterous is the common use of the word 'nervous. ' The ablestlexicographers define it as 'strong, well-strung, full of nerve, 'whereas, in ordinary parlance, it has come to signify the veryopposite of these. When I speak of a nervous speaker or writer, forexample, what do I mean?"

"One who imbibes unwholesomely large quantities of strong green tea, and sees hobgoblins peering at her through the window-panes!" saidRosa, sarcastically artless, tripping by in season to overhear thisclause of his small-talk. 

Mabel's imperturbable good-breeding prevented embarrassment orresentment at the interruption. At heart, she was vexed that Rosashould omit no opportunity of shooting privily and audaciously ather practical admirer, but to betray her appreciation of theimpertinence would be to subject herself to imputations ofsensitiveness on his account. 

"I saw the hobgoblin without the aid of green tea, " she rejoined. "There was really some one upon the porch, but why the apparitionshould scare Clara out of her wits, I cannot divine. The negro is anincurable Paul Pry, and, next to dancing a Christmas jig himself, isthe pleasure of seeing others do it. "

Mrs. Aylett verified her brother's encomium upon her nerve byreappearing in the saloon by the time another set was over, and justbefore the announcement of supper, radiant and self-possessed, prepared to do double social duty to atone for the fright she hadcaused, and the temporary damp her swoon had cast over thefestivities. 

The revel went joyously forward--Christmas-games and incantations, the dexterous introduction, by a jocose old gentleman, of amistletoe-bough into the festoons draping the chandelier, and diversother tricks, all of which were taken in excellent part by thevictims thereof, and vociferously applauded by the spectators. Thegreat hall-clock had rung out twelve strokes, and two or threemethodical seniors were beginning to whisper to one another theirintention to take French leave of the indefatigable juniors and seektheir couches, when a continued tumult arose from the yard--barkingand shouts, and voices in angry or eager dispute. 

Unmindful of the nipping air, the ladies flew to the windows andraised them, while the gentlemen, in a body, rushed out upon theporch, many to the lawn--the scene of the disturbance. 

"They have caught him!"

"There are several of them--a gang of thieves, no doubt!"

"No! I see but one! They are bringing him to the house!" weremorsels of information passed over the shoulders of the foremostrank of inquisitive fair ones to the rear, but none were able toanswer the returning inquiries. 

"Who is it?"

"What does he look like like?"

"Does he offer any resistance?"

"Do you suppose he is a burglar, or only a common vagrant?"

"I thought the Ridgeley grounds were never infested by prowlingbeggars, or other vagabonds, " said a lady to Mrs. Aylett, whoprudently remained near the fire, even then shivering with the cold, and casting uneasy looks at the windows. 

"Mr. Aylett is a model to his brother magistrates in his treatmentof such nuisances, " remarked another "His name is a terror tostrollers, whether they be organ-grinders, pedlers, orincendiaries. "

Mrs. Aylett, excessively pale, applied her vinaigrette to her nose, and trembled yet more violently. 

"I believe he is very strict, " she assented. "But I am really afraidthose ladies will take cold! The snow-air is piercing. And theyare--most of them--heated with dancing. Cannot we prevail upon themto close the windows, now that the mysterious prowler is secured? Weshall hear all about him when the gentlemen return, and they willnot stay out of doors longer than is necessary. "

They began to pour back into the room, while she was speaking, laughing, and talking, all together shaking the snow-powder fromtheir hair and hands, and anathematizing the cold and their thinboots. The particulars of the midnight disturbance were quicklydisseminated. The ebon sentinels had, directed by the barking oftheir canine associates, discovered, under a holly hedge on one sideof the yard, a man lying upon the earth, and almost buried in thesnow he seemed not to have strength to throw off. He was eitherdrunk or so nearly frozen as to be incapable of answering coherentlytheir demands as to what was his name and what his business upon thepremises. The interrogations of the gentlemen and the ungentleshakings administered by his captors elicited nothing but groans andmuttered oaths. He could not, or would not, walk without support, and to leave him where he was, or to turn him adrift into the publicroad, would be certain death. Therefore Mr. Aylett had ordered himto be confined for the night in a garret room. In the morning hemight be examined to more purpose. 

"But he ought to have a fire, and something hot and nourishing todrink!" exclaimed Mrs. Button, upon hearing the story. "He willfreeze in that barn of a place--poor wretch!"

"I imagine he has no need of additional stimulants, " said Mrs. Aylett, dryly, again resorting to her smelling-bottle. "From whatthe gentlemen say, I judge that he had laid in a supply of caloricsufficient to last through the night. And the first use he wouldmake of fire would be to burn the house over our heads. His lodgingsare certainly more comfortable than those selected by himself. Thereis little danger of his finding fault with them. What manner oflooking creature is he?"

"An unkempt vagabond!" rejoined Randolph Harrison, rubbing his bluefingers before the fire. "His clothes are ragged, and frozen stiff. I suppose he has been out in the storm ever since it set in. Therewere icicles upon his beard and hair, his hat having fallen off. Itis a miracle he did not freeze to death long ago. It is a bitternight. "

"Did you say he was an old man?" inquired the hostess languidly, from the depths of her easy chair. 

"He is not a young one, for his hair is grizzled. But we will formourselves into a court of inquiry in the morning, with Mr. Aylett aspresiding officer--have in the nocturnal wanderer, and hear whataccount he can give of himself. Who knows what romantic history wemay hear--one that may become a Christmas legend in after years?"

"You will get nothing more sensational than the confessions of ahen-roost robber, I suspect, " said Mrs. Aylett, more wearily thanwas consistent with her role of attentive hostess. 

Her husband noticed the tokens of exhaustion, and interposed tospare her further exertion. 

"Our friends will excuse you if you retire without delay, Clara. Youstill feel the effects of your agitation and faintness. "

This was the signal for a general dispersion of the ladies--thegentlemen, or most of them, adjourning to the smoking-room. 

Since the late extraordinary influx of visitors, Mabel had sharedher aunt's chamber, but, instead of seeking this now, she wentstraight from the parlor to the supper-room, where she found, as shehad expected, Mrs. Sutton in the height of business, directing thesetting of the breakfast-table, clearing away the debris of theevening feast, and counting the silver with unusual care, lest astray fork or spoon had, by some hocus-pocus known to the class, been slipped into the pocket of the supposititious burglar. 

"Aunt, " began Mabel, drawing her aside, "that poor wretch up-stairsmust be cared for. It is the height of cruelty to lock him up in afireless room, without provisions or dry clothing. If he should die, would we be guiltless?"

Mrs. Sutton's benevolent physiognomy was perplexed. 

"Didn't I say as much in the other room, before everybody, my dear?And didn't SHE put me down with one of her magisterial sentences?She is mistress here--not you or I. Besides, Winston has the key ofthat east garret in his pocket, and I would not be the one to askhim for it, since he has had his wife's opinion upon the subject ofhumanity to prisoners. "

"I shall not trouble him with my petition. I discovered by accident, when I was a child, that the key of the north room would open thatdoor. If I order, upon my own responsibility, that a cup of hotcoffee, and some bread and meat be taken up to him, you will notdeny them to me, I suppose?"

"Certainly not, my child! but I dare not send a servant with them. Winston's orders were positive--they all tell me--that not a soulshould attempt to hold communication with him. And what he says hemeans. "

"Then, " replied Winston's sister, with a spark of his spirit, "Iwill take the waiter up myself. I cannot sleep with this horrorhanging over me--the fear lest, through my neglect or cowardice, afellow-being--whose only offence against society, so far as weknows is his dropping down in a faint or stupor under a hedge on theRidgeley plantation--should lose his life. "

"Your feelings are only what I should expect from you, my love; butthink twice before you go up-stairs yourself! It would be consideredan outrageous impropriety, were it found out. "

"Less outrageous than to let a stranger perish for want of suchattention as one would vouchsafe to a stray dog?" questioned Mabel, with a queer smile. "Roger! pour me out a bowl of coffee at once. Put it on a waiter with a plate of bread and butter--or stay!oysters will be more warming and nourishing. I am very sure thatDaphne is keeping a saucepanful hot for her supper and yours. Hurry!"

The waiter, whose wife was the cook, ducked his head with a grinconfirmatory of his young mistress' shrewd suspicion, and vanishedto obey her orders, never dreaming but she wanted the edibles forher private consumption. He enjoyed late and hot suppers, and whynot she? Thanks to this persuasion, the coffee was strong, clear, and boiling, the oysters done to a turn, and smoking from thesaucepan. 

Taking the tray from him, with a gracious "Thank you! This is justas it should be, " Mabel negatived his offer to carry it to her room, and started up-stairs. 

Mrs. Sutton followed with a lighted candle. 

"Winston or no Winston, you shall not face that desperado alone, "she said, obstinately. "There is no telling what he may do--murderyou, perhaps, or at least knock you down in order to escape. Winstontalks as if he were the captain of the forty thieves. "'

"He is pretty well hors de combat now, at any rate, " smiled Mabel, but allowing her aunt to precede her with the light to the upperfloor. "And should he offer violence--scalding coffee may defend meas effectually as Morgiana's boiling oil routed the gang. MY captainhad to be carried up-stairs by four servants, who left him upon apile of old mattresses in one corner of the room. Here we are!"

They were in a wide hall at the top of the house, the unceiledrafters above their heads, carpetless boards beneath their feet. Mabel set her waiter upon a worm-eaten, iron-bound chest, and wentfurther down the passage to get the key of the north room. Her lightfootstep stirred dismal echoes in the dark corners; the windscreamed through every crack and keyhole, like a legion of pipingdevils; rumbled lugubriously over the steep roof. The one candleflickering in the draught showed Mabel's white bust and arms, likethose of a phantom, beaming through a cloud of blackness, when shestooped to try the key in the lock of the prison-chamber. 

After fitting it, she knocked before she turned it in the rustywards--again, and more loudly--then spoke, putting her lips close tothe key-hole:

"We are friends, and have brought you supper. Can we come in?"

There was no answer, and with a beating heart she unlocked the door, pushed it ajar, and motioned to Aunt Rachel to hold her candle up, that she might gain a view of the interior. 

The wan, uncertain rays revealed the heap of mattresses, and uponthem what looked like a mass of rough, wet clothing, without soundor motion. 

"He is pretending to be asleep! Take care!" whispered Mrs. Sutton, trying to restrain Mabel as she pressed by her into the room. 

"He is dead, I fear!" was the low answer. 

Forgetful of her nephew's prohibition and her recent fears, the goodwidow entered, and leaned anxiously over the stranger's form. Atall, gaunt man, clad in threadbare garments, which hung looselyupon the shrunken breast and arms, black hair and beard, mottledwith white, ragged, and unshorn, and dank from exposure to the snowand sleet; a chalky-white face, with closed and sunken eyes, sharpened nose, and prominent cheek-bones--this was what they beheldas the candle flamed up steadily in the comparatively still air ofthe ceiled apartment. The miserable coat was buttoned up to hischin, and the shreds of a coarse woollen comforter, torn from histhroat at his capture, still hung about his shoulders. His clotheswere sodden with wet, as Harrison had said, and the solitarypretence at rendering him comfortable for the night, had been theact of a negro, who contemptuously flung an old blanket across hisnether limbs before leaving him to his lethargic slumbers. He hadnot moved since they tossed him, like a worthless sack, upon thissorry resting-place, but lay an unsightly huddle of arms, legs, andhead, such as was never achieved, much less continued, by any onesave a drunken man or a corpse. Mabel ended the awed silence. 

"This is torpor--not sleep, nor yet death, " she said, withoutrecoiling from the pitiful wreck. 

Indeed, as she spoke, she bent to feel his pulse; held the emaciatedwrist in her warm fingers until she could determine whether thefeeble stroke were a reality, or a trick of the imagination. 

"Dr. Ritchie should see him immediately. He is in the smoking-room. If you call him out, it will excite less remark than if I were to doit. Don't let Winston guess why you want him, " were her directionsto her aunt, uttered quickly, but distinctly. 

"Yon will not stay here! At least, go into the hall! What will thedoctor think?"

"I shall remain where I am. The poor creature is too far gone topresume upon my condescension, " with a faint sarcastic emphasis. 

At Mrs. Sutton's return with the physician, she perceived that herniece had not awaited her coming in sentimental idleness. A thickwoollen coverlet was wrapped about the prostrate figure, and Mabel, upon her knees on the dusty hearth, was applying the candle to aheap of waste paper and bits of board she had ferreted out inclosets and cuddy-holes. It caught and blazed up hurriedly in seasonto facilitate the doctor's examination of the patient, thrown sooddly upon his care. Mrs. Sutton had not neglected, in her haste, toprocure a warm shawl from her room, and she folded it about thegirl's shoulders, whispering an entreaty that she would go to bed, and leave the man to her management and Dr. Ritchie. 

Mabel waved her off impatiently. 

"Presently! when I hear how he is!" moving toward the comfortlesscouch. 

The physician looked around at the rustle of her dress, his pleasantface perturbed, and perhaps remorseful. 

"This is a bad business! I wish I had examined him when he wasbrought in. There would have been more hope of doing something forhim then. But, to tell the truth, I was one of the five or sixprudent fellows who stayed upon the piazza, and witnessed thecapture from a distance. I had no idea of the man's real situation. Mrs. Sutton! can I have brandy, hot water, and mustard at once! MissMabel! may I trouble you to call your brother? He ought to beadvised of this unforeseen turn of affairs. "

His emissaries were prompt. In less than ten minutes, all theappliances the household could furnish for the restoration of thefailing life were at his command. An immense fire roared in thelong-disused chimney; warm blankets, bottles of hot water andmustard-poultices were prepared by a corps of officious servants;the master of the mansion, with three or four friends at his heels, and a half-smoked cigar in his hand, had looked in for a moment, tohope that Dr. Ritchie would not hesitate to order whatever wasneeded, and to predict a favorable result as the meed of his skill. 

Half an hour after her brother's visit, Mabel tapped at the door toinquire how the patient was, and whether she could be of use in anyway. She still wore her evening dress, and the fire of excitementhad not gone out in her eyes and complexion. 

"Don't sit up longer, " said the doctor, with the authority of an oldfriend. "It will not benefit your protege for you to have aheadache, pale cheeks, and heavy eyes to-morrow, while it willrender others, whose claims upon you are stronger, very miserable. "

She thanked him laconically for his thoughtfulness, and bade him"good-night, " without a responsive gleam of playfulness. Her heartwas weighed down with sick horror. The almost certainty of which hespoke with professional coolness, was to her, who had never withinher recollection stood beside a death-bed, a thing too frightful tobe anticipated without dread, however its terrors might bealleviated by affection and wealth. As the finale of their Christmasfrolic--perhaps the consequence of wilful neglect in those whoshould have known better than to abandon the wanderer to the ravagesof hunger, cold, and intoxication--the idea was ghastly beyonddescription. 

She was about to diverge from the main hall on the second floor intothe lateral passage leading to Mrs. Sutton's room in the wing, whenher name was called in a gentle, guarded key by her sister-in-law. 

CHAPTER IX. 

HE DEPARTETH IN DARKNESS. 

"COME in! I want to talk to you!" said Mrs. Aylett, beckoning Mabelinto her chamber, from the door of which she had hailed her. "Sitdown, my poor girl! You are white as a sheet with fatigue. I cannotsee why you should have been suffered to know anything about thisvery disagreeable occurrence. And Emmeline has been telling me thatMrs. Sutton actually let you go up into that Arctic room. "

"It was my choice. Aunt Rachel went along to carry the light and tokeep me company. She would have dissuaded me from the enterprise ifshe could, " responded Mabel, sinking into the low, cushioned chairbefore the fire, which the mistress of the luxurious apartment hadjust wheeled forward for her, and confessing to herself, for thefirst time, that she was chilly and very tired. 

"But where were the servants, my dear? Surely you are not required, in your brother's house, to perform such menial services as takingfood and medicine to a sick vagrant. "

"Winston had forbidden them to go near the room. I wish I had goneup earlier. I might have been the means of saving a life which, however worthless it may seem to us, must be of value to some one. "

"Is he so far gone?"

The inquiry was hoarsely whispered, and the speaker leaned back inher fauteuil, a spark of fierce eagerness in her dilated eyes, Mabel, in her own anxiety, did not consider overstrained solicitudein behalf of a disreputable stranger. She had more sympathy with itthan with the relapse into apparent nonchalance that succeeded herrepetition of the doctor's report. 

"He does not think the unfortunate wretch will revive, eventemporarily, then?" commented the lady, conventionallycompassionate, playing with her ringed fingers, turning her diamondsolitaire in various directions to catch the firelight. "How unluckyhe should have strayed upon our grounds! Was he on his way to thevillage?"

"Who can say? Not he, assuredly. He has not spoken a coherent word. Dr. Ritchie thinks he will never be conscious again. "

"I am afraid the event will mar our holiday gayeties to some extent, stranger though he is!" deplored the hostess. "Some people aresuperstitious about such things. His must have been the spectralvisage I saw at the window. I was sure it was that of a white manalthough Winston tried, to persuade me to the contrary. "

"It is dreadful!" ejaculated Mabel energetically. "He, poor homelesswayfarer, perishing with cold and want in the very light of oursummer-like rooms; getting his only glimpse of the fires that wouldhave brought back vitality to his freezing body through closedwindows! Then to be hunted down by dogs, and locked up by moreunfeeling men, as if he were a ravenous beast, instead of asuffering fellow-mortal! I shall always feel as if I were, in somemeasure, chargeable with his death--should he die. Heaven forgive usour selfish thoughtlessness, our criminal disregard of our brother'slife!"

"I understood you to say there was no hope!" interrupted Mrs. Aylett. 

"So Dr. Ritchie declares. But I cannot bear to believe it!"

She pressed her fingers upon her eyeballs as if she would excludesome horrid vision. 

"My dear sister! your nerves have been cruelly tried. To-morrow, youwill see this matter--and everything else--through a differentmedium. As for the object of your amiable pity, he is, withoutdoubt, some low, dissipated creature, of whom the world will be wellrid. "

"I am not certain of that. There are traces of something likerefinement and gentle breeding about him in all his squalor andunconsciousness. I noticed his hands particularly. They are slenderand long, and his features in youth and health must have beenhandsome. Dr. Ritchie thought the same. Who can tell that his wifeis not mourning his absence to-night, as the fondest woman underthis roof would regret her husband's disappearance? And she maynever learn when and how he died--never visit his grave!"

"I have lived in this wicked world longer than you have, my sweetMabel; so you must not quarrel with me if these fancy pictures donot move me as they do your guileless heart, " said Mrs. Aylett, thesinister shadow of a mocking smile playing about her mouth. "Normust you be offended with me for suggesting as a pendant to yourcrayon sketch of widowhood and desolation the probability that thedecease of a drunken thief or beggar cannot be a seriousbereavement, even to his nearest of kin. Women who are beaten andtrampled under foot by those who should be their comfort andprotection are generally relieved when they take to vagrancy as aprofession. It may be that this man's wife, if she were cognizant ofhis condition, would not lift a finger, or take a step to prolonghis life for one hour. Such things have been. "

"More shame to human nature that they have!" was the impetuousrejoinder. "In every true woman's heart there must be tendermemories of buried loves, let their death have been natural orviolent. "

"So says your gentler nature. There are women--and I believe theyare in the majority in this crooked lower sphere--in whose heartsthe monument to departed affection--when love is indeed no more--isa hatred that can never die. But we have wandered an immensedistance from the unlucky chicken-thief or burglar overhead. Dr. Ritchie's sudden and ostentatious attack of philanthropy will hardlybeguile him into watching over his charge--a guardian angel indress-coat and white silk neck-tie--until morning?"

"Mammy is to relieve him so soon as he is convinced that human skillcan do nothing for his relief, " said Mabel very gravely. 

Her sister-in-law's high spirits and jocular tone jarred upon hermost disagreeably, but she tried to bear in mind in what dissimilarcircumstances they had passed the last hour. If Clara appearedunfeeling, and her remarks were distinguished by less taste than wascustomary in one so thoroughly bred, it was because the exhilarationof the evening was yet upon her, and she had not seen thedeath's-head prone upon the pillows in the cheerless attic. Thoughtsof poverty and dying beds were unseemly in this apartment when thevery warmth and fragrance of the air told of fostering andsheltering love. The heavy curtains did not sway in the blast thathurled its whole fury against the windows; the furniture washandsome, and in perfect harmony with the dark, yet glowing hues ofthe carpet, and with the tinted walls. A tall dressing mirror letinto a recess reflected the picture, brilliant with firelight thatcolored the shadows themselves; lengthened into a deep perspectivethe apparent extent of the chamber and showed, like a fine oldpainting, the central figure in the vista. 

Mrs. Aylett had exchanged her evening dress for a cashmere wrapper, the dark-blue ground of which was enlivened by a Grecian pattern ofgold and scarlet; her unbound hair draped her shoulders, and framedher arch face, as she threaded the bronze ripples with her fingers. She looked contented, restful, complacent in herself and herbelongings--one whom Time had touched lovingly as he swept by, andwhom sorrow had forgotten. 

"Not asleep yet!" was her husband's exclamation, entering beforeanything further passed between the two women; and when his sisterstarted up, with an apology for being found there at so late anhour, he added, more reproachfully than he ever spoke to his wife, "You should not have kept her up, Mabel! Her strength has been toomuch taxed already to-night. I hoped and believed that she had beenin bed and asleep for an hour. "

"Don't blame her!" said Mrs. Aylett, hastily. "I called her in asshe was proceeding to bed in the most decorous manner possible. Imay as well own the truth of my weakness. I was nervouslywakeful--the effect, in part, of the ultra-strong coffee Dr. Ritchieadvised me to drink at supper-tine--in part, of the silly sensationI got up to terrify my friends. So I maneuvered to secure a firesidecompanion until you should have dispatched your cigar. Gossip is aspleasant a sedative to ladies as is a prime Havana to their lords. "

"And what is the latest morceau?" inquired Mr Aylett, indulgently, when Mabel had gone. 

He was standing by his wife's chair, and she leaned her head againsthim, her bright eyes uplifted to his, her hair falling in a long, burnished fringe over his arm--a fond, sparkling siren, whom no man, with living blood in his veins, could help stooping to kiss beforeher lips had shaped a reply. 

"You wouldn't think it an appetizing morsel! But I listened withinterest to our unsophisticated Mabel's account of her Quixoticexpedition to what will, I foresee, be the haunted chamber ofRidgeley in the next generation. Her penchant for adventure has, Isuspect, embellished her portrait of the hapless house-breaker. "

"A common-looking tramp!" returned Winston, disdainfully. "Asvillanous a dog in physiognomy and dress as I ever saw! Such an oneas generally draws his last breath where he drew the first--in aditch or jail; and too seldom, for the peace and safety of society, finds his noblest earthly elevation upon a gallows. It is anuisance, though, having him pay this trifling debt ofNature--nobody but Nature would trust him--in my house. There mustbe an inquest and a commotion. The whole thing is an insufferablebore. Ritchie has given him up, and gone to bed, leaving old Phillison the watch, with unlimited rations of whiskey, and a pile offire-wood higher than herself. But I did not mean that you shouldhear anything about this dirty business. It is not fit for mydarling's ears. Mabel showed even less than her usual discretion indetailing the incidents of her adventure to you. "

Flattery of his sister had never been a failing with him, but, sincehis marriage, the occasions were manifold in which her inferiorityto his wife was so glaring as to elicit a verbal expression ofdisapproval. It was remarkable that Clara's advocacy of Mabel'scause, at these times, so frequently failed to alter his purpose ofcensure or to mitigate it, since, in all other respects, herinfluence over him was more firmly established each day and hour. 

Old Phillis, Mabel's nurse and the doctress of theplantation--albeit a less zealous devotee than her master hadintimated of the potent beverages left within her reach, ostensiblyfor the use of her patient should he revive sufficiently to swallowa few drops--was yet too drowsy from the fatigues of the day, sundry cups of Christmas egg-nogg, and the obesity of age, tomaintain alert vigil over one she, in common with herfellow-servitors, scorned as an aggravated specimen of the alwaysand ever-to-be despicable genus, "poor white folks. " There was nextto nothing for her to do when the fire had been replenished, thebottles of hot water renewed at the feet and heart, and freshmustard draughts wound about the almost pulseless limbs of the dyingstranger. She did contrive to keep Somnus at arm's length for awhile longer, by a minute examination of his upper clothing, which, by Dr. Ritchie's directions, had been removed, that the remediesmight be more conveniently applied, and the heated blankets thesooner infuse a vital glow through the storm-beaten frame. Theancient crone took them up with the tips of her fingers--raggedcoat, vest, and pantaloons--rummaged in the same contemptuousfashion every pocket, and kicked over the worn, soaked boots withthe toe of her leather brogan, sniffing her disappointment at theworthlessness of the habiliments and the result of her search. 

"Fit fur nothin' but to bury his poor carcuss in!" she grunted, andhad recourse to her own plethoric pocket for a clay pipe and a bagof tobacco. 

This lighted by a coal from the hearth, she tied a secondhandkerchief over that she wore, turban-wise, on her head, mumblingsomething about "cold ears" and "rheumatiz;" settled herself in arush-bottomed chair, put her feet upon the rounds of another, andwas regularly on duty, prepared for any emergency, and to be alarmedat nothing that might occur. 

So strict was the discipline she established over herself in fifteenminutes, that she did not stir at the creaking of the bolt, or theshriller warning of the unoiled hinges, as the door moved cautiouslyback, and a cloaked form became dimly visible in the opening. Asurvey of the inside of the chamber, the unmoving nurse and hersenseless charge, with the fumes of brandy and tobacco, reassuredthe visitant. Her stockingless feet were thrust into waddedslippers; over her white night-dress was a dark-blue wrapper, and, in addition to this protection against the cold, she was envelopedin a great shawl, disposed like a cowl about her head. Withoutrustle or incautious mis-step she gained the side of the improvisedbed, and leaned over it. The face of the occupant was turnedslightly toward the left shoulder, and away from the light. Theapparition raised herself, with a gesture of impatience, caught thecandle from the rickety table at the head of the mattress, snuffedit hurriedly, and again stooped toward the recumbent figure, with itin her hand. 

It was then that the vigilant watcher unclosed her flabby lids, slowly, and without start or exclamation, much as a dozing catblinks when a redder sparkle from the fire dazzles her out ofdreams. One hard wink, one bewildered stare, and Pbillis was awakeand wary. Her chin sank yet lower upon her chest, but the black eyeswere rolled upward until they bore directly upon the strangetableau. The shawl had dropped from the lady's head, and the candleshone broadly upon her features, as upon the sick man's profile. Apparently dissatisfied with this view, she slipped her disengagedhand under the cheek which was downward, and drew his face aroundinto full sight. 

"And bless your soul, honey!" Aunt Phillis told her young mistress, long afterward, "you never see sech a look as was on hern--while hereyes was thar bright and big, they was jist like live coals sot in alump of dough--she growed so white!"

Nevertheless the spy could return the candle to its place upon thetable without perceptible tremor of lip or limb, and after bestowingone scrutinizing glance upon the nurse, who was fast asleep beneathit, she went to the heap of damp clothing. These she lifted--one byone--less gingerly than Phillis had done, and ransacked every likelyhiding-place of papers or valuables, going through the operationwith a rapid dexterity that astounded the old woman's weak mind, andmade her ashamed of her own clumsiness. Anticipating the finalstealthy look in her direction, the heavy lids fell once again, andwere not raised until the rusty bolt passed gratingly into thesocket, and she felt that the place was deserted by all save herselfand the dying stroller. 

She was in no danger of dozing upon her post after this visitation. For the few hours of darkness that yet remained, she sat in herchair, her elbows upon her knees, smoking, and pondering upon whatshe had witnessed, varying her occupations by feeding the fire andsuch care of the patient as she considered advisable; likening, inher rude, yet excitable imagination, the rumbling of the gale in thechimney and across the roof-tree, to the roll of the chariot-wheelswhich were to carry away the parting soul; the tap and rattle ofsleet and wind at the windows to the summons of demons, impatient atDeath's delay. 

"The Lord send him an easy death, and let him go up, instead ofdown!" she groaned aloud, once. 

But the dubious shake of the head accompanying the benevolentpetition betokened her disbelief in the possibility of a favorablereply. In her articles of faith it was only by a miracle that a"no-account white man, " picked up out of the highway, and whosepockets were barren as were those she had examined, could get animpetus in that direction. 

The stormy dawn was revealing, with dreary distinctness, the shabbydisorder of the lumber-room, when Dr. Ritchie appeared in hisdressing-gown, rubbing his eyes, and yawning audibly. 

"Gone--hey?" was his comment upon the negress' movements. 

She had bound a strip of linen about the lank jaws; combed back thegrizzled hair from the forehead into sleek respectability; crossedthe hands at the wrists, as only dead hands are ever laid;straightened the limbs, and was in the act of spreading a cleansheet over her finished work. 

"Nigh upon an hour since, sir, " she responded, respectfully. 

"He did not revive at all after I left him?"

"Not a breath or a motion, sir. He went off at the last jist as easyas a lamb. Never tried to say nothin', nor opened his eyes after youwent down. 'Twould a' been a pity ef you had a' lost more sleepa-settin' up with him. Ah, well, poor soul! 'taint for us to saywhar he is now. I would hope he is in glory, ef I could. I 'sposethe Almighty knows, and that's enough. "

The doctor arrested her hand when she would have covered the face. 

"He must have been a fine-looking fellow in his day!" he said, moreto himself than to her. "But he has lived fast, burned himself upalive with liquor. "

"I didn't call nobody, sir, to help me, 'cause nobody couldn't do nogood, and I was afeared of wakin' the gentlemen and ladies, atrottin' up and downstairs, " continued Phillis, bent uponexculpating herself from all blame in the affair, and mistaking hismomentary pensiveness for displeasure. 

"You were quite right, old lady! All the doctors and medicines inthe world could not have pulled him through after the drink and thesnow had had their way with him for so many hours--poor devil! Well!I'll go back to bed now, and finish my morning nap. "

He was at the threshold when he bethought himself of a finalinjunction. 

"You had better keep an eye upon these things, Aunty!" pointing tothe coat and other garments she had ranged upon chairs to dry infront of the fire. "There will be a coroner's inquest, I suppose, and there may be papers in his pockets which will tell who he wasand where he belonged. When you are through in here, lock the doorand take out the key--and if you can help it, don't let a whisper ofthis get abroad before breakfast. It will spoil the ladies'appetites. If anybody asks how he is, say 'a little better. ' Hecan't be worse off than he was in life, let him be where he may. "

"Yes, sir, " answered Phillis, in meek obedience. "But I don't thinkhe was the kind his folks would care to keep track on, nor the sortthat carries valeyble papers 'round with 'em. "

"I reckon you are not far out of the way there!" laughed the doctor, subduedly, lest the echo in the empty hall might reach the sleeperson the second floor, and he ran lightly down the garret steps. 

The inquest sat that afternoon. It was a leisure season withplanters, and a jury was easily collected by specialmessengers--twelve jolly neighbors, who were not averse to theprospect of a glass of Mrs. Sutton's famous egg-nogg, and a socialsmoke around the fire in the great dining-room, even though thesewere prefaced by ten minutes' solemn discussion over the remains ofthe nameless wayfarer. 

His shirt was marked with some illegible characters, done in fadedink, which four of the jury spelled out as "James Knowlton, " threeothers made up into "Jonas Lamson, " and the remaining five declineddeciphering at all. Upon one sock were the letters "R. M. " upon thefellow, "G. B. " With these unavailable exceptions, there wasliterally no clue to his name, profession, or residence, to begathered from his person or apparel. The intelligent jury brought ina unanimous verdict--"Name unknown. Died from the effects of drinkand exposure;" the foreman pulled the sheet again over the blank, chalky face, and the shivering dozen wound their way to the warmerregions, where the expected confection awaited them. 

Their decorous carousal was at its height, and the ladies, one andall, had sought their respective rooms to recuperate their weariedenergies by a loll, if not a siesta, that they might be in trim forthe evening's enjoyment (Christmas lasted a whole week at Ridgeley)when four strapping field hands, barefooted, that their tramp mightnot break the epicurean slumbers, brought down from the desolateupper chamber a rough pine coffin, manufactured and screwed tight bythe plantation carpenter, and after halting a minute in the backporch to pull on their boots, took their way across the lawn andfields to the servants' burial-place. This was in a pine grove, twofurlongs or more from the garden fence, forming the lower enclosureof the mansion grounds. The intervening dell was knee-deep indrifted snow, the hillside bare in spots, and ridged high in others, where the wind-currents had swirled from base to summit. The passagewas a toilsome one, and the stalwart bearers halted several times toshift their light burden before they laid it down upon the mound ofmixed snow and red clay at the mouth of the grave. Half-a-dozenothers were waiting there to assist in the interment, and at thehead of the pit stood a white-headed negro, shaking with palsy andcold--the colored chaplain of the region, who, more out of customand superstition than a sense of religious responsibility--least ofall motives, through respect for the dead--had braved the inclementweather to say a prayer over the wanderer's last home. 

The storm had abated at noon, and the snow no longer fell, but therehad been no sunshine through all the gloomy day, and the clouds werenow mustering thickly again to battle, while the rising gale in thepine-tops was hoarse and wrathful. Far as the eye could reach wereuntrodden fields of snow; gently-rolling hills, studded with shrubsand tinged in patches by russet bristles of broom-straw; the riverswollen into blackness between the white banks, and the dark horizonof forest seeming to uphold the gray firmament. To the right of thespectator, who stood on the eminence occupied by the cemetery, layRidgeley, with its environing outhouses, crowning the most ambitiousheight of the chain, the smoke from its chimneys and those of thevillage of cabins beating laboriously upward, to be borne down atlast by the lowering mass of chilled vapor. 

The coffin was deposited in its place with scant show of reverence, and without removing their hats, the bystanders leaned on theirspades, and looked to the preacher for the ceremony that was toauthorize them to hurry through with their distasteful task. Thatthe gloom of the hour and scene, and the utter forlornness of allthe accompaniments of what was meant for Christian burial, hadstamped themselves upon the mind and heart of the unlettered slave, was evident from the brief sentences he quavered out--joining hiswithered hands and raising his bleared eyes toward the threateningheavens:

"Lord! what is man, that thou art mindful of him! For that whichbefalleth man befalleth beasts--even one thing befalleth them. Allgo unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit ofthe beast that goeth downward to the earth? Man cometh in withvanity and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered withdarkness. The dead know not anything, for the memory of them isforgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is nowperished, neither have they a portion for ever in anything that isdone under the sun. 

"Lord! teach us to number our days, that we may apply our heartsunto wisdom. Oh, spare ME, that I may recover strength, ere I gohence and be no more!

"In the name of the FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST--dust to dust, andashes to ashes! Amen!"

"By the way, Mr. Aylett, the poor wretch up-stairs should be buriedat the expense of the county, " remarked the coroner, before takingleave of Ridgeley and the egg-nogg bowl. "I will take the poor-houseon my way home, and tell the overseer to send a coffin and a cartover in the morning. You don't care to have the corpse in the houselonger than necessary, I take it? The sooner he is in the Potter'sField, the more agreeable for you and everybody else. "

Mr. Aylett pointed through the back window at the winding pathacross the fields. 

A short line of black dots was seen coming along it, in thedirection of the house. As they neared it they were discovered to bemen, each with a hoe or shovel upon his shoulder. 

"The deed is done!" said the master, smiling. "My good fellows therehave spared the county the expense, and the overseer the trouble ofthis little matter. As for the Potter's Field, a place in myservants' burying-ground is quite as respectable, and moreconvenient in this weather. "

The jurors were grouped about the fire in the baronial hall, buttoning up overcoats and splatterdashes, and drawing on theirriding-gloves, all having come on horseback. In the midst of thegeneral bepraisement of their host's gentlemanly and liberalconduct, Mrs. Aylett swam down the staircase, resplendent in silver-gray satin, pearl necklace and bracelets, orange flowers andcamelias in her hair--semi-bridal attire, that became her as nothingelse ever had done. 

"My dear madam, " said the foreman of the inquest--a courtlydisciple of the old school of manner, and phraseology--as the augustbody of freeholders parted to either side to leave her a passage-wayto the fireplace--"your husband is a happy man, and his wife shouldbe a happy woman in having won the affection of such a model ofchivalry"--stating succinctly the late proof the "model" had offeredto an admiring world of his chivalric principles. 

The delicate hand stole to its resting-place upon her lord's arm, asthe lady answered, her ingenuous eyes suffused with the emotion thatgave but the more sweetness to her smile. 

"I AM a happy woman, Mr. Nelson! I think there is not a prouder ormore blessed wife in all the land than I am this evening. "

Laugh, jest, and dance ruled the fleeting hours in the halls of theold country-house that night, and the presiding genius of the revelwas still the beautiful hostess--never more beautiful, never sowinning before. No one noticed that, by her orders, or herhusband's, the window through which she had beheld the goblin visagewas closely curtained. Or, this may have been an accidentaldisposition of the drapery, since no trace of her momentary alarmremained in her countenance or demeanor. 

In the kitchen a double allowance of toddy was served out, by theirmaster's orders, to the men who had taken part in the interment onthe hill-top. And, in their noisy talk over their potations thevagrant was scarcely mentioned. 

Only the pines, hoarser in their sough, by reason of the fallingsnow that clogged their boughs, chanted a requiem above the roughhillock at their feet. 

"Man cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his nameis covered with darkness!"

CHAPTER X. 

ROSA. 

"THAT is a new appearance. "

"Who can she be?"

"Unique--is she not?" were queries bandied from one to another ofthe various parties of guests scattered through the extensiveparlors of the most fashionable of Washington hotels, at theentrance of a company of five or six late arrivals. All the personscomposing it were well dressed, and had the carriage of people ofmeans and breeding. Beyond this there was nothing noteworthy aboutany of them, excepting the youngest of the three ladies of whatseemed to be a family group. When they stopped for consultation upontheir plans for this, their first evening in the capital, directlybeneath the central chandelier of the largest drawing-room, shestood, unintentionally, perhaps, upon the outside of the littlecircle, and not exerting herself to feign interest in the parley, sought amusement in a keen, but polite survey of the assembly, apparently in no wise disconcerted at the volley of glances sheencountered in return. 

If she were always in the same looks she wore just now, she musthave been pretty well inured to batteries of admiration by this datein her sunny life. She was below the medium of woman's stature, round and pliant in form and limbs; in complexion dark as a gypsybut with a clear skin that let the rise and fall of the bloodbeneath be marked as distinctly as in that of the fairest blonde. Her eyes were brown or black, it was hard to say which, so changefulwere their lights and shades; and her other features, howeverunclassic in mould, if criticised separately, taken as a whole, formed a picture of surpassing fascination. If her eyes and cleftchin meant mischief, her mouth engaged to make amends by smiles andseductive words, more sweet than honey, because their flavor wouldnever clog upon him who tasted thereof. Her attire was striking--itwould have been bizarre upon any other lady in the room, but itenhanced the small stranger's beauty. A black robe--India silk orsilk grenadine, or some other light and lustrous material--wasbespangled with butterflies, gilded, green, and crimson, the manyfolds of the skirt flowing to the carpet in a train designed to addto apparent height, and, in front, allowing an enchanting glimpse ofa tiny slipper, high in the instep, and tapering prettily toward thetoe. In her hair were glints of a curiously-wrought chain, woundunder and among the bandeaux; on her wrists, plump and dimpled as ababy's, more chain-work of the like precious metal, ending intinkling fringe that swung, glittering, to and fro, with therestless motion of the elfin hands, she never ceased to clasp andchafe and fret one with the other, while she thus stood and awaitedthe decision of her companions. But instead of detracting from thecharm of her appearance, the seemingly unconscious gesture onlyheightened it. It was the overflow of the exuberant vitality thatthrobbed redly in her cheeks, flashed in her eye, and made buoyanther step. 

"What an artless sprite it is!" said one old gentleman, who hadstared at her from the instant of her entrance, in mute enjoyment, to the great amusement of his more knowing nephews. 

"All but the artless!" rejoined one of the sophisticated youngsters. "She is gotten up too well for that. Ten to one she is anexperienced stager, who calculates to a nicety the capabilities ofevery twist of her silky hair and twinkle of an eyelash. Hallo! thatIS gushing--nicely done, if it isn't almost equal to the genuinething, in fact. "

The ambiguous compliment was provoked by a change of scene and a newactor, that opened other optics than his lazy ones to theirextremest extent. A gentleman had come in alone and quietly--a tall, manly personage, whose serious countenance had just time to softeninto a smile of recognition before the black-robed fairy flew up tohim--both hands extended--her face one glad sunbeam of surprise andwelcome. 

"YOU here!" she exclaimed, in a low, thrilling tone, shedding intohis the unclouded rays of her glorious eyes, while one of her handslingered in his friendly hold. "This is almost too good to be true!When did you come? How long are you going to stay? and what did youcome for? Yours is the only familiar physiognomy I have beheld sinceour arrival, and my eyes were becoming ravenous for a sight ofremembered things. Which reminds me"--coloring bewitchingly, with anodd mixture of mirth and chagrin in smile and voice--"that I havebeen getting up quite a little show on my own account, forgetful ofles regles, and I suppose the horrified lookers-on think of lesmoeurs. May I atone for my inadvertence by presenting you, in goodand regular form, to my somewhat shocked, but very respectable, relatives? Did you know that I was in Congress this year--that is, Mr. Mason, my aunt's husband, is an Honorable, and I am here withthem?"

The gentleman gave her his arm, and they strolled leisurely in thedirection of the party she had deserted so unceremoniously. 

"I did not know it, bat I am glad to learn that you are to make along visit to the city. I have business that may detain me here fora week--perhaps a fort-night, " was his answer to the first questionshe suffered him thus to honor. 

Then the introduction to Mr. And Mrs. Mason, their married daughter, Mrs. Cunningham, and her husband, was performed. The Member's wifewas a portly, good-natured Virginia matron, whose ruling desire tomake all about her comfortable as herself, sometimes led tocontretemps that were trying to the subjects of her kindness, andwould have been distressing to her, had she ever, by any chance, guessed what she had done. 

She opened the social game now, by saying, agreeably: "Your name isnot a strange one to us, Mr. Chilton. We have often heard you spokenof in the most affectionate terms by our friends, but not nearneighbors, the Ayletts, of Ridgeley, ----county. Is it long since youmet or heard from them?"

"Some months, madam. I hope they were in their usual health when youlast saw them?"

Receiving her affirmative reply with a courteous bow, and theassurance that he was "happy to hear it, " Mr. Chilton turned toRosa, and engaged her in conversation upon divers popular topics ofthe day, all of which she was careful should conduct them in theopposite direction from Ridgeley, and his affectionate intimates, the Ayletts. He appreciated and was grateful for her tact anddelicacy. Her unaffected pleasure at meeting him had been aspleasant as it was unlooked-for, aware as he was, from Mabel'sletter immediately preceding the rapture of their engagement, thatRosa must have been staying with her when it occurred. The slanderthat had blackened him in the esteem of his betrothed had, henaturally supposed, injured his reputation beyond hope of retrievalwith her acquaintances. Rosa, her bosom companion, could not buthave heard the whole history, yet met him with undiminishedcordiality, as a valued friend. Either the Ayletts had beenunnaturally discreet, or the faith of the interesting girl in hisintegrity was firmer and better worth preserving than he hadimagined in the past. Perhaps, too, since he was but mortal man, although one whose heritage in the school of experience had been ofthe sternest, he was not entirely insensible to the privilege ofpromenading the long suite of apartments with the prettiest girl ofthe season hanging upon his arm, and granting her undividedattention to all that he said, indifferent to, or unmindful of, theflattering notice she attracted. 

Over and above all these recommendations to his peculiar regard washer association with the happy days of his early love. Not anintonation, not a look of hers, but reminded him of Ridgeley and ofMabel. It was a perilous indulgence--this recurrence to a dream hehad vowed to forget, but the temptation had befallen him suddenly, and he surrendered himself to the intoxication. 

Yes! she was going to the President's levee that evening, Rosa said. A sort of raree-show--was it not? with the Chief Magistrate for headmountebank. He was worse off in one respect than the poorestcottager in the nation he was commonly reported to govern, inasmuchas he had not the right to invite whom he pleased to his house, andwhen the mob overran his premises he must treat all with equalaffability. She pitied his wife! She would rather, if the choicewere offered her, be one of the revolving wax dummies used inshop-windows for showing the latest style of evening costume andhair-dressing--for the dolls had no wits of their own to begin with, and were not expected to say clever things, as the President'sconsort was, after she had lost hers in the crush of the aforesaidmob, who eyed her freely as an appendage to their chattel, the manthey had bought by their votes, and put in the highest seat in theRepublic. No! she was not provided with an escort to the WhiteHouse. She did not know three people in Washington beside herrelatives, and, looking forward to creeping into the palatial EastRoom at her uncle's back, or in the shadow of her cousin's husband, the vision of enjoyment had not been exactly enrapturing--BUT, hercompanion's proposal to join their party and help elbow the crowdaway from her, lent a different coloring to the horizon. 

BUT--again--flushing prettily--was he certain that the expeditionwould not bore him? Doubtless he had had some other engagement inprospect for the evening, before he stumbled over her. He ought toknow her well enough not to disguise his real wishes by gallantphrases. 

"I have never been otherwise than sincere with you, " Frederic said, honestly; "I had thought of going to the levee alone, as a possiblemethod of whiling away an idle evening. If you will allow me toaccompany you thither, I shall be gratified--shall derive actualpleasure from the motley scene. It will not be the only time you andI have studied varieties of physiognomy and character in a mixedassembly. Do you recollect the hops at the Rockbridge Alum Springs?"

"I do, " replied Rosa, laconically and very soberly. 

He thought she suppressed a sigh in saying it. She was awarm-hearted little creature with all her vagaries, and he was lessinclined to reject her unobtrusive sympathy than if a more sedate orprudent person had proffered it. 

It was certain he could not have selected a more entertainingassociate for that evening. She amused him in spite of the painfulrecollections revived by their intercourse. She did not passunobserved in the dense crowd that packed the lower floor of theWhite House. Her face, all glee and sparkle, the varied music of hersoft Southern tongue, her becoming attire--were, in turn, thesubject of eulogistic comment among the most distinguishedconnoisseurs present. It was not probable that these should all beunheard by her cavalier, or that he should listen to them withprofound indifference. 

He was astonished, therefore, when she protested that she had had"enough of it, " and proposed that they should extricate themselvesfrom the press and go home. It was contrary to the commonly receivedtenets of his sex respecting the insatiable nature of femininevanity, that she should weary so soon of adulation which would haverendered a light head dizzy. Mrs. Mason was not ready to leave thehalls of mirth. She had met scores of old friends, and was having a"nice, sociable time" in a corner, while Mrs. Cunningham had "notbegun to enjoy herself, looking at the queer people and the superbdresses. "

Of course, they had no objection to their wilful relative doing asshe liked, but did not conceal their amazement at her bad taste. 

"Take the carriage, dear! You'll find it around out theresomewhere, " drawled the easy-tempered aunt. "And let Thomas comeback for us. He will be in time an hour from this. "

"Would it be an unpardonable infraction of etiquette if we were towalk home?" questioned Rosa of Mr. Chilton, when they were out ofMr. Mason's hearing. "The night is very mild. "

"But your feet. Are they not too lightly shod for the pavement?"

"I left a pair of thick gaiters in the dressing-room, which I worein the carriage. "

"Then I will be answerable for the breach of etiquette, should itever be found out, " was the reply, and Rosa disappeared into thetiring-roem to equip herself for the walk. 

It was a lovely night for December--moonlighted and bland asOctober, and neither manifested a disposition to accelerate thesaunter into which they had fallen at their first step beyond theportico. Rosa dropped her rattling tone, and began to talk seriouslyand sensibly of the scene they had left, the flatness of fashionablesociety after the freshness of novelty had passed from it, and herpreference for home life and tried friends. 

"Yet I always rate these the more truly after a peep at a differentsphere, " she said. "Our Old Virginia country-house is never so dearand fair at any other time as when I return to it after playing atfine lady abroad for a month or six weeks. I used to fret at themonotony of my daily existence; think my simple plsasures tame. I amthankful that I go back to them, as I grow older, as one does topure, cold water, after drinking strong wine. "

"You are blessed in having this fountain to which you may resort inyour heart-drought, " answered Frederic, sadly. "The gods do notoften deny the gift of home and domestic affections to woman. It isan exception to a universal rule when a man who has reached thirtywithout building a nest for himself, has a pleasant shelter spared, or offered to him elsewhere. "

"Yet you would weary, in a week, of the indolent, aimless life ledby most of our youthful heirs expectant and apparent, " returnedRosa. "I remember once telling you how I envied you for having workand a career. I was youthful then myself--and foolish as immature. "

"I recollect!" and there was no more talk for several squares. 

Rosa was getting alarmed at the thought of her temerity in revertingto this incident in their former intercourse, and meditating theexpediency of entering upon an apology, which might, after all, augment, rather than correct the mischief she had done, whenFrederic accosted her as if there had been no hiatus in thedialogue. 

"I recollect!" he repeated, just as before. "It was upon the backpiazza at Ridgeley, after breakfast on that warm September morning, when the air was a silvery haze, and there was no dew upon theroses. I, too, have grown older--I trust, wiser and stronger since Italked so largely of my career--what I hoped to be and to do. Whendid you see her--Miss Aylett, " abruptly, and with a total change ofmanner. 

"The Rubicon is forded, " thought Rosa, complacently, the while hercompassion for him was sincere and strong. "He can never shut hisheart inexorably against me after this. "

Aloud, she replied after an instant's hesitation designed to preparehim for what was to follow--"I was with Mabel for several days lastMay. We have not met since. "

"She is alive--and well?" he asked, anxiously. 

An inexplicable something in her manner warned him that all was notright. 

"She is--or was, when I last heard news of her; we do notcorrespond. She does not live at Ridgeley now. "

There she stopped, before adding the apex to the nicely graduatedclimax. 

"Not live with her brother! I do not understand. "

"Have you not heard of her marriage?"

"No!"

He did not reel or tremble, but she felt that the bolt had pierced avital part, and wisely forbore to offer consolation he could nothear. 

But when he would have parted with her at the door of her uncle'sparlor, she saw how deadly pale he was, and put her hands into his, beseechingly. 

"Come in! I cannot let you go until you have said that you forgiveme!"

There were tears in her eyes, and in her coaxing accents, and heyielded to the gentle face that sought to lead him into the room. Itwas fearful agony that contracted his forehead and lips when hewould have spoken reassuringly, and they were drops of genuinecommiseration that drenched the girl's cheeks while she listened. 

"I have nothing to forgive you! You have been all kindness andconsideration--I ought not to have asked questions, but I believedmyself when I boasted of my strength. I thought the bitterness ofthe heart's death had passed. Now, I know I never despaired before!Great Heavens! how I loved that woman! and this is the end!"

He walked to the other side of the room. 

Rosa durst not follow him even with her eyes. She sat, her faceconcealed by her handkerchief, weeping many tears for him--more forherself, until she heard his step close beside her, and he seatedhimself upon her sofa. 

"Rosa! dear friend! my sympathizing little sister! I shall notreadily gain my own pardon for having distressed you so sorely. Whenyou can do it with comparative ease to yourself, I want you to tellme one or two things more, and then we will never allude toirreparable bygones again. "

"I am ready!" removing her soaked cambric, and forcing a flutteringsmile that might show how composed she was; "don't think of me! Iwas only grieved for your sake, and sorry because I had unwittinglyhurt you. I was in hopes--I imagined--"

"That I had ontlived my disappointment? You said, that sameSeptember day, that women hid their green wounds in sewing rooms andoratories. Mine should have been cauterized long ago, by other andharsher means, you think. It seldom bleeds--but tonight, I had nottime to ward off the point of the knife and it touched a raw spot. Don't let me frighten you! now that the worst is upon me, I must becalmer presently. You were at Ridgeley, in September, a year since, when she who was then Miss Aylett"--compelling himself to thearticulation of the sentence that signified the laterchange--"received her brother's command to reject me?"

"I was. "

"He would never tell me upon what evil report his prohibition wasbased. He was more communicative with his sister, I suppose?"

And Rosa, following the example of other women--and men--who vaunttheir principles more highly than she did hers, made a frankdisclosure of part of the truth and held her tongue as to the rest. 

"I couldn't help seeing that something was wrong, for Mabel, who, upto the receipt of her brother's letter and one from you that came bythe same mail, had been very cheerful and talkative, suddenly grewmore serious and reserved than was her habit at any time; but shetold me nothing whatever, never mentioned your name again in myhearing. Mrs. Sutton did hint to me her fear that Mr. Aylett hadheard something prejudicial to your character, which had greatlydispleased him and shocked Mabel, but even she was unaccountablyreticent. Intense as was my anxiety to learn the particulars of thestory, and upon what evidence they were induced to believe it, Idared not press my inquiry into what it was plain they intended toguard as a family secret. "

His reply was just what she had foreseen and guarded against. 

"It would have been a kind and worthy deed, had you written to warnme of my danger, and advised me to make my defence in person. As itwas, I was thrown off roughly and pitilessly--my demand upon thebrother for the particulars of the accusation against me--my appealto the sister--loving and earnest as words could make it--forpermission to visit her and learn from her own lips that she trustedor disowned me, were alike disregarded. Mr. Aylett's response was asecond letter, more coldly insulting than the first--hers, thereturn of my last, after she had opened and read it, then thesurrender of my gifts, letters, notes, everything that could remindher that we had ever met and loved. Mrs. Sutton, too, my father'sold and firm friend, deserted me in my extremity. And she must havebeen acquainted with the character and extent of the chargespreferred against me. I had hoped better things from her, if onlybecause I bear her dead husband's name. Did she never speak in yourhearing of writing to me?"

"She did--but said, in the next breath, that it would be useless, since the minds of the others were fully made up. I knew she thoughtWinston arbitrary, and Mabel credulous; but she was afraid tointerfere. As for myself, what could I have told you that you hadnot already heard? I could only hope that the cloud was not heavy, and would soon blow over. From the hour in which it cast the firstshadow upon her, Mabel was estranged from me--the decline of ourintimacy commenced. The Ayletts take pride in keeping their owncounsel. Winston, who never liked me, and whom I detested, was asconfidential with me in this affair as my old playfellow and school-mate. Believe me when I declare that if my intercession could haveavailed aught with her, I would have run the risk of her displeasureand Winston's anathemas by offering it. "

"I do believe you! Nor need you expatiate to me upon the obduracy ofthe Aylett pride. Surely, no one living has more reason than I tocomprehend how unreasoning and implacable I find it is. I looked forinjustice at Winston Aylett's hands. I read him truly in our onlyprivate interview. Insolent, vain, despotic--wedded to his dogmas, and intolerant of others' opinion, he disliked me because I refusedto play the obedient vassal to his will and requirements; stoodupright as one man should in the presence of a brother-mortal, instead of cringing at his lordship's footstool. But he waspowerless to do more than annoy me without his sister'sco-operation. "

"She stood in great, almost slavish, awe of him, " urged Rosa, inextenuation of Mabel's infidelity. 

"Aye!" savagely. "And love was not strong enough to cast out fear!She was justifiable if she hesitated to entrust herself and herhappiness to the keeping of one she had known but two months. It wasprudent--not false--in her to weigh, to the finest grain, theevidence furnished by her brother to prove my unfitness to be herhusband. But having done all this, she should have remembered that Ihad rights also. It was infamous, cowardly, cruel beyond degree, tocast her vote against me without giving me a chance ofself-exculpation. Her hand--not his--struck the dagger into myback!"

Again Rosa's fingers involuntarily (?) stole into his, to recall himto a knowledge of where he was, and there were fresh tears, ready tofall from her gazelle eyes, when his agitation began to subside. 

"My poor child!" he said, penitently. "I am behaving like a madman, you like a pitying angel! We will have no more scenes, and you mustoblige me by forgetting this one, as fast as may be. From to-nightMabel Aylett is to me as if she had never been. To nobody exceptyourself have I betrayed the secret of my hurt. After this, when yonthink of it, believe that it is a hurt no longer. "

Rosa "had out" her fit of crying when he went away, betaking herselfto her chamber and locking the door that her aunt might not surpriseher while the traces of tears disfigured her cheeks. But she wasanything but broken-hearted, and only slightly sore in spirit in theretrospect of what had ensued upon her communication to thediscarded lover. He had, indeed, given more evidence of hisunconquered passion for Mabel than she had expected. His undisguisedpleasure in renewed companionship with herself; his excellentspirits during the greater part of the evening; his unembarrassedreply to her aunt's malapropos observation, and fluent chat uponother themes, had misled her into the hope that the ungenerous anduncivil conduct of the Ayletts had disgusted and alienated him fromsister, no less than from brother. It was a disappointment todiscover that it cost him a terrible effort to pronounce Mabel'sname, while the abrupt intelligence of her marriage had distractedhim to incoherent ravings, which had nearly amounted to curses uponthe authors of his pain. 

"And all for a woman who could bring herself, after being engaged toFrederic Chilton, to marry that dolt of a Dorrance!" she said, indignantly. "I wonder if he would have been consoled or chagrinedhad I painted the portrait of the man who had superseded him. It isas well that I did not make the experiment. He would be magnanimousenough when he cooled down--which he will do by to-morrowmorning--to pity her, and that is next to the last thing I want himto do. Thank goodness! the denouement is over, and the topic aninterdicted one from this time forth. Now for the verification orrefutation of the saying that a heart is most easily caught in therebound. There was some jargon we learned at school about the angleof incidence being equal to that of reflection. You see, my dearlybeloved self, " nodding with returning sauciness at her image in themirror before which she was combing her hair, "I undertake thisbusiness in the spirit of philosophical investigation. "

She needed to keep her courage up by these and the like whimsicalconceits, when the forenoon of the next day passed away without aglimpse of Mr. Chilton. He had not yet left his card for the Masons, nor called to inquire after her health, when the summons sounded tothe five o'clock dinner. A horrible apprehension seized and devouredher heart by the time the dessert was brought on, and there were nosigns of his appearance. He had, ashamed to meet her after lastnight's exposure of his weakness, or dreading the power of thereminiscences the sight of her would awaken, left the city withoutcoming to say "Farewell. " That is, she had driven him from herforever!

The room went around with her in a dizzy waltz, as the notioncrossed her brain. 

"The sight and smell of all these sweets make me sick, Aunt Mary, "she said, rising from the table. "My head aches awfully! May I go tomy room and lie down?"

"Try some of this nice lemon-ice, my love!" prescribed the plumpmatron. "The acid will set you all straight. No? You don't think youare going to have a chill, do you? Father!" nudging her husband whowas burying his spoon in a Charlotte Russe, "this dear child doesn'twant any dessert. Won't you pilot her through the crowd?"

"Only to the door, uncle! Then come back to your dinner!" Rosa madeanswer to his disconcerted stare. "I can find my way to my chamberwithout help. "

She could have done it, had she been in possession of her accustomedfaculties. But between the harrowing suspicion that engrossed hermind and the nervous moisture that gathered in her eyes with eachstep, she mounted a story too high, and did not perceive her blunderuntil, happening to think that her apartment must lie somewhere inthe region she had gained, she consulted the numbers upon theadjacent doors, and saw that she had wandered a hundred rooms out ofher way, She stopped short to consider which of the corridors, stretching in gas-lit vistas on either hand, would conduct hersoonest to the desired haven, when a gentleman emerging from achamber close by stepped directly upon her train. 

CHAPTER XI. 

IN THE REBOUND. 

"I beg your pardon!" said a deep, familiar voice. Then the formalityvanished from face and address. "Is this YOU?" holding out his handin hearty friendliness that instantly dispelled Rosa's forebodings. "What or whom are you seeking in these wilds?"

The crystal beads glistened upon her lashes in the fulness and joyof her deliverance from doubt and fear, and before she could twinklethem back, broke into smaller brilliants upon her cheeks and thebosom of her dress. It was very babyish and foolish, but it is to bequestioned whether she could have contrived a more telling situationhad she studied it for a month. 

"What is it!" inquired Frederic, kindly, not releasing the fingersthat twitched, more than struggled, in his. "Have you beenfrightened?"

"Yes, " with grieved, but fearless simplicity, "I was frightenedbecause I thought I had offended you--perhaps driven you away--andthat I should never be able to ask your forgiveness for my cruelabruptness last night! In thinking about and worrying over this, Isomehow lost my way, and was just trying to remember by what route Ireached this strange neighborhood, when your appearance startledme. "

"You did not know, then, that this is Bachelor's Hall--the haunt ofunmated Benedicts, wifeless visitors to the city, and celibate M. C. 's?" he rejoined, pleasantly. "Let me be your guide to moredesirable as well as more accessible quarters!"

On the stairs he bent to scan her blushing countenance. 

"How am I to punish you for your naughty distrust of my friendshipand common sense? I have been too busy all day to spare a minute forsocial pleasure. I dined at two o'clock, having an appointment atthree, returned at half-past five, and was just coming down to yourparlor to look you up. Another bit of unimportant news, with which Ishould not have annoyed you if you had not merited a little vexationby your preposterous fancies, is, that, instead of taking an earlytrain to Philadelphia, I have to-day entered into engagements thatwill oblige me to prolong my stay in this place until the first ofFebruary. "

He looked bright and cheerful, ready for sport or badinage. Rosacaught herself wondering many times during that evening, and thesucceeding days of the three weeks they passed under the same roof, if she had dreamed of--not beheld with her bodily optics--that onestormy burst of passion which had been his farewell to the hope of afinal reconciliation with Mabel Aylett. 

He never spoke of her again, or referred, in the most distantmanner, to his visit at Ridgeley. The omission was an agreeable oneto Rosa for several reasons. Silence, she believed, was to oblivionas a means to an end. Judging from herself, she adopted the theorythat people were apt to forget what they never talked of themselves, nor heard mentioned by others. Furthermore, she was relieved fromthe necessity of concocting diplomatic evasions, dexterouslyskirting the truth, to say nothing of plump falsehoods. These lastcost her conscience some unpleasant twinges. To avoid narrating infull what had happened was a work of art. A downright lie was astroke of heavy business, unsuited to her airy genius--and when theAylett-Chilton complication was upon the tapis, it was difficult toavoid undertaking such. 

For three weeks, then, Mr. Frederic Chilton and the Virginian bellevisited concert, theatre, and assembly-room in company, sat side byside in the spectators' gallery of House and Senate chamber, walkedin daylight along the broad avenues from one magnificent distance toanother, and on home-evenings--which were not many--chatted togetherfamiliarly, the well-pleased Masons thought confidentially, by thefireside in the family parlor. It must not be inferred from theirconstant intercourse that he had the field entirely to himself. Gallants of divers pretensions--first-class, mediocre, andcontemptible--considered with a practical eye to "settlement, "hovered about the fascinating witch as moths about a gas-burner, andhad no citable cause of complaint of non-appreciation, inasmuch asshe shed equal light upon all, save one. "My very old friend, Mr. Chilton, " she was wont to denominate him in conversation with thosewho inwardly called themselves fools for their jealousy of a man ofwhom she spoke thus frankly, with never a stammer or blush; yet theyacknowledged to themselves all the while that they were bothsuspicious and envious of his superior advantages. However backwardFrederic may have been in the beginning to monopolize the notice andtime of his "sisterly friend, " he was not an insensate block, whocould not perceive and value the compliment paid him by herpartiality--ever apparent, but never unmaidenly. Impute it towhatever motive he might, the distinction titillated his vanity, touched, at least, the outermost covering of his heart. It might bepity, it might be pleasant, mournful memories of other days--it wasmost likely of all a sincere platonic affection, for one with tastesand feelings akin to hers that gave lustre to her eyes, and gentlemeaning to her smile when he drew near. At any rate, it would bechurlish not to accept the preference these conveyed, and to likeher and his position as her chosen knight better every day; it wasinevitable that he should marvel--not without melancholy-at theflight of time that brought so soon the day of parting. 

The Masons, with himself, were engaged to attend a large party onthe last evening of January. Without analyzing the impulse thatconstrained him to do so, he had refrained from reminding Rosa thathis stay in Washington was so nearly over, and, with masculineconsistency, he was half disposed to be affronted that she hadforgotten what he had said to her of its extent. He had never seenher more lively--in more radiant spirits and looks--than she wasupon the night of the 30th. He had dropped into her aunt's parlorabout ten o'clock, and detected Rosa in the act of dragging her newball-dress from the box in which the mantua maker had sent it home. 

"Conceive, if you can--but you can't, being a man--what I haveundergone for an hour and more!" she cried, at seeing him. "Mytreasure--the darlingest love of a dress I have ever ordered--wasbrought in exactly two seconds before a brace of honorables--lumbering machines that they are! knocked at the door. So, lest theyshould brand me as a frivolous doll (as if anybody with a soul, andan infinitesimal degree of love for the beautiful, COULD helpadmiring the divine thing!), I pushed the poor box under the sofa, and there it has lain in ignominious neglect, like a pearl of purestray serene smothered in an oyster, all the time they were here. Iwas purposely cross and stupid, too, in the hope of getting rid ofthem the sooner. If you despise what most of your undiscriminatingsex call fancy articles, consider a woman's fondness for a ravishingrobe despicable and irrational, Mr. Chilton, you need not look thisway. You could hardly have a severer--certainly not a moreappropriate--punishment. "

"You depreciate my aesthetic proclivities, " he rejoined, catchingher tone. "You would not trust my bungling fingers to help excavatethe gem, I know; but I may surely use my eyes--admire, as we bidchildren do--with my hands behind my back. "

Notwithstanding his boast of knowingness in the mysteries offeminine apparel, he could not have told of what material the divinerobe was made--except that it was some shiny white stuff, with wideembroidery upon the flounces. But Rosa, her aunt, and cousin hadgone into ecstacies over it, and instigated by kind-hearted Mrs. Mason, the enraptured owner had rushed off to Mrs. Mason's chamberto try it on, returning presently in full array, elate at the"perfect fit, " and insisting upon a unanimous declaration that she"had never before worn anything one-thousandth part as becoming. "

"It is a winsome, fantastic, enchanting little being!" remarked Mr. Chilton, in soliloquy at his dressing-table, the next evening. "Ihope she will enjoy the gathering to-night, as she hopes to do. Willshe miss me at the next she attends?"

Then--laughing at the sentimental visage portrayed upon themirror--"It would be the acme of ludicrous folly for me to disturbmyself on that score. We have had a pleasant time together--she andI--and tomorrow it will be over. There is the whole story--exceptthat, in a month I shall cease to think of her, unless her name isaccidentally uttered in my hearing--I wish I could forget someother things as easily!--and she will probably be the affianceddarling of one of the lumbering Honorables--the elder and homelierof the brace, I fancy, since he is the wealthier, and thehumming-bird should have a fitting cage. "

Expressing in his composed lineaments and firm stride nothing likedisconsolateness at the programme, he flung his cloak over his arm, took his white gloves in his hand, cast a passing glance at theglass to see that his whiskers and hair were in order, and ran downthe two flights of stairs lying between Bachelor's Hall and theMasons' private parlor. 

"Come in!" said a plaintive voice, in answer to his knock. 

Rosa was alone in the cosy apartment. She was curled up in a greatpadded chair, set upon the hearth-rug. Her dress was a plain blacksilk; she wore a scarlet shawl, and her head-gear was some odd, butdistractingly pretty construction of white lace, a square folded intwo unequal triangles, and knotted loosely, handkerchief-wise, thepoints in front, under her chin. 

"Not ready!" exclaimed Frederic, in merry reproach. "You, the modelof punctual women!"

"I am not going!" sighed the humming-bird, dolorously. "I have had ahorrid sore throat all day--and--a--headache--and Aunt Mary gotfrightened, and forbade me to put my head out of doors. "

"That is a heart-rending affliction! And could you not send theincomparable dress as your representative?"

"Don't laugh!" she said, jerking away her head. "I cannot bear itto-night--not that I care the millionth part of a fig for all theparties in christendom; and as for the dress, you think that Ihaven't a soul above such frippery and gewgaws: but I wish I hadnever seen it. I shall never wear it as long as I live!"

And out came the laced cambric to absorb the gathering dew. 

"There is something in this I do not understand, " said Frederic, setting a chair for himself close to hers. "Are you reallysuffering? I imagined that yours was a case of simple cold, and thatMrs. Mason advised you to remain indoors chiefly on account of theweather. It is raining hard!"

"I am glad it is!" she replied, with the manner of one bereft ofhuman sympathy, and extracting gloomy delight from the unison ofnature with her morbid broodings. "And my throat isn't nearly sopainful as I made Aunt Mary believe. I did not want to go out. Parties are an awful bore when one is sad-hearted. "

"You really must forgive me!" said Frederic, as she twitched herface away again at the laugh he could not suppress. "But sadness andyou should not be thought of in the same week. Honestly, now! is notthe inimitable fabric you sported for five minutes last night, atthe bottom of what appears to you a fathomless abyss of woe? Haveyou tried the efficacy of rational consolation in the thought of howmany more parties there will be this winter to which you can wearit? The Secretary of State is to give one in ten days, which is tobe the sensation of the season. That of to-night is, in comparison, as a caucus to a general convention. "

"I shall never put on the hateful thing again. If Julia Cunninghamchooses to bedizen herself in it, she is welcome to it--flounces andall. Yet I did like it! I had hoped--but no matter what! You hadbetter be going, Mr. Chilton. Aunt and the rest of them wenlthree-quarters of an hour ago. "

"Does a dress go out of fashion in so short a time?" persistedinnocent Frederic, bent upon mitigating her sorrow. "If my memoryserves me aright, I have seen ladies wear the same ball-dressseveral times in the same winter. "

"You will never see this on me, " snapped Rosa, her eyes ominouslyfiery again. "Did you hear me advise you of the lateness of thehour?"

"Suppose I decline appearing at all in the festal scene?" said thegentleman. "I shall not be missed. I will just run down and dismissthe carriage--then, with your permission, will return and spend theevening here. "

Her cheeks looked as if they had been touched with wet vermilion, when he resumed his place near her, and the folds of thehandkerchief in her hand hung more limply. 

"I ought not to allow this sacrifice!" she faltered gratefully. "Because I have the vapors, I have no right to keep you within reachof the infection. It is shamefully, wickedly selfish!"

"It is no such thing!" he contradicted. "If you would know thetruth, I was, myself, averse to attending this 'crush. ' But for yourindisposition, I should hail with unmixed pleasure the chance thatreleases me from the obligation to form a part of the throng. It isfar more in consonance with my feelings to pass this, our lastevening together, as we have spent so many others, in quiet talk atthis fireside. I had not supposed it possible that I could ever feelso much at home in a hotel--a Washington caravansary especially--asI have within the last three weeks. Do you know, or have you notburdened your memory with such unimportant memoranda as the fact, that I must set my face Philadelphia-ward to-morrow?"

"I had not dreamed that the time was so near at hand--it seemed sucha little while since the evening of our arrival--until I happened, last night, after you left us, to take up Mrs. Rogers'invitation-card for this evening. THEN, I recollected!"

Her listless resignation had in it something piteous, and the leverof compassion impelled him to further efforts of cheer. 

"I have to thank you for all the enjoyment of my visit to this, heretofore to me, dismal city. If you should ever visitPhiladelphia--as I earnestly hope you will--you must acquaint mewith your whereabouts immediately upon your arrival. I should besorry to think that our friendship is to end here and now. "

"As well here and now, as anywhere and at any time!" returned Rosa, yet more resignedly. "And the end must come, sooner or later. Thiswas what I was saying over to myself when you came in. I am afool--a baby--to mind it!" angrily dashing away the obtrusive brinefrom her mournful eyelids. "I WISH you would leave me alone for afew minutes, Mr. Chilton, until I can behave myself!"

For a second it seemed that her companion would take her at herword, so puzzled and troubled was his countenance, and he movedslightly, as about to obey the petulant behest; then sat still. 

"I have found no fault in your behavior!" he said, too coolly toplease Rosa's notion. 

"I know you despise me!" she burst forth, chokingly. "I believe I amhysterical, and the more I rail at my stupidity and folly, the moreunmanageable my nerves--if it is my nerves that are out of order--become. But I have been so happy, so content and grateful, lately!And everything will be so different after--after TO-MORROW!"

Her voice had failed to a sobbing whisper, and the diaphanouscambric veiled her bowed face. 

Frederic Chilton did not stir a finger or attempt to speak for afull minute, but in that minute he thought a volume, felt acutely. 

This, then, was what he had been doing in his hours of relaxationfrom the business which had occupied his mind to the banishment ofnearly every other consideration; that had driven into comparativeobscurity the old gnawing grief which had incorporated itself withhis being! The intimacy with a beautiful, sprightly girl had been aholiday diversion to him after arduous brain-labor, recreationsought conscientiously and systematically, that his mental powersmight be clearer and fresher for the next day's toil in court andamong perplexing records; in hunting up titles and disputedproperty, and proving their validity. He had gained the cause thathad brought him to the capital, and cost him so much fatigue andanxiety, and was proud of his success. But what of this other pieceof work? Would not the most cold-blooded flirt, who ever prated offidelity, when he meant betrayal and desertion, blush to father thisbusiness? And she, poor, guileless lamb, must bear the pain, themortification, perhaps the contumely, which ought to be his inseven-fold measure!

"Stay, Rosa!" he said, huskily, when she attempted to rise. "Do notleave me yet. I may not be altogether so unworthy, so basely callousas I have given you reason to suppose. Can it be that I havemisconstrued what you have said, or do you really care that ourseparation is so near? I had not thought of this. "

"I understand. " She lowered her flag of distress and confronted himsorrowfully, not in resentment. "You believed me incapable of deepand lasting feeling; saw in me no more than the world does, a giddycoquette, feather-haired and shallow-hearted. Be it so. Perhaps itis best that you should not be undeceived. Such injustice andprejudice are the penalties a woman must suffer who wears a tinselcloak over her finer affections--admits but few, sometimes but one, to her sanctum sanctorum. The gushing, loving, extensively-lovingclass fare better. You have been very kind and attentive to me in mystrangerhood here, Mr. Chilton. I must always revert to your conductwith gratitude. By the way"--a hysterical laugh breaking into herdignified acknowledgment of benefits received--"that is the same, in substance, that you said to me a while ago, isn't it? So we areeven--owe each other nothing. "

"Except to love one another. " The solemn accents hushed her recklessprattle. "Rosa, can you learn this lesson?"

She had shrunk down--sunk is not the word to convey an idea of theprostration of strength, the collapse of resolution, expressed bythe figure cowering in the deep chair, its face upborne and hiddenby the shaking hands. They were cold as ice, Frederic felt, when hewould have drawn them aside. 

"We will have no foolish reserves, my child. Much, if not all, thehappiness of our future lives may depend upon our perfect sinceritynow. You do not require to be told how poor is the offering of myheart. You are the only person who has ever entered into the secretof its emptiness and desolation; seen blight, where there should bebloom; ashes, where flame should glow. But such as it is, it isyours, if you will have it. If you are willing to trust yourselfwith me, I will cherish as I now honor you, truly and forever; leaveno means untried that can add to your happiness. Dare you make theventure?"

Her unstudied caress was beautiful and pathetic in its lowliness ofhumility and earnest affection--too earnest for the commonplaceoutlet of words. It was to slip to her knees at his feet, and kisshis hand, then lay her cheek upon it, as some dumb, devoted thingmight do. 

Then she was lifted into his arms, and kissed with a fervor shemistook for awakening passion, and her heart bounded more madly inthe belief that her victory was complete, that he would henceforwardbe hers in feeling as in name. 

Yet the words breathed into her ear as her head rested upon hisbosom might have taught her the fallacy of her conviction and herhopes. 

"My noble, faithful girl! What have I to offer you in payment forall this?"

"I ask nothing, except the right to be with, and to serve you!"responded Rosa. 

And she thought she spoke the whole truth for once. 

CHAPTER XII. 

AUNT RACHEL WAXES UNCHARITABLE. 

"A SLY, artful, treacherous jade?" articulated Mrs. Sutton, energetically. "I have no patience with her. And they say she is sooverjoyed at her conquest that she trumpets the engagementeverywhere. Such shameless carrying on I never heard of. If she evercrosses my path I shall treat her to some wholesome truths. "

"What good would that do, aunt?" asked Mabel Dorrance, withoutraising her head from her sewing. "And what has she done that shouldincense you or any one else against her? She was free to choose ahusband, and we have no right to cavil at her choice. I hope shewill be very happy. I used to love her--we loved each other veryfondly once. There are some excellent traits in Rosa's character, and when she is once married she will be less volatile. "

"Don't you believe it. Her flightiness and insincerity are ingrain!I believed in her once myself--she had such beguiling ways, it washard to disapprove of anything she said or did. But I was secretlyaware, all the time, that there was a radical defect in hercomposition. A woman who has been engaged, or as good as engaged, tosix or eight different men, cannot retain much purity of mind orstrength of affection. I heard you tell her yourself once that suchunscrupulous flirtation and bandying of hearts were profane touchesthat rubbed the down from the peach. "

"That was the extravagant talk of a silly, romantic girl, " repliedMabel, with a smile that changed to a sigh before the sentence wasfinished. "I was somewhat given to lecturing other people, in thosedays, upon subjects of which I knew little or nothing. Nine men outof ten care little how roughly the peach has been rubbed, providedthe flavor is not injured to their taste. It is only once in a greatwhile that you meet with one whose palate is so nice that he candetect the difference between fruit that has been hawked through themarket and that just picked from the tree. First love is a myth atwhich rational people laugh. "

"Perhaps so, " said Mrs. Sutton dubiously. 

In view of the circumstances of Mabel's marriage, she felt that itbehooved her to be circumspect in condemnation of transferredaffections. 

"But that does not alter the fact of Rosa Tazewell's infamousbehavior to Alfred Branch and others of her beaux. Isn't the poorfellow drinking himself into his grave, all through hisdisappointment? And here she is going to be as honored a wife as ifshe had never perjured herself, or ruined an honest, loving man'sprospects for life!"

Mabel went on with her work, and did not reply. 

"I have had uncomfortable suspicions about certain passages in herintercourse with us, since I heard this news, " continued Mrs. Sutton, edging her chair toward her niece, and dropping her voice. "I am afraid I can date the beginning of her cruelty to Alfred backto that September she spent here--to the latter part of it, I mean. Little scenes come to my memory that caused me trifling uneasinessthen. I shall never forget, for instance, how she eyed you, themorning Winston came home so unexpectedly. "

And she described the incident recorded in the latter part of ouropening chapter. 

"Can it be, " she pursued, "that she had even then designs upon theman she is about to marry? She knew all the circumstances of thetrouble that ensued, and if disposed to be meddlesome, she had themeans at her command. "

"I told her nothing, " said Mabel briefly. 

"But she pumped me pretty effectually, " confessed the auntshamefacedly. "I thought there could be no harm in giving her asynopsis of the case--she being your intimate friend. "

Another gleam of pensive amusement crossed Mabel's face. She knewtoo well the nature of her aunt's "synopsis" to doubt that Rosa wasconversant with every phase of the affair, concerning which her ownlips had been so sternly sealed. 

"You have nothing with which to reproach yourself, " she said, tranquilly. "She marries with her eyes open. "

"You don't imagine for one instant that she would be annoyed by anysuch scruples as beset you!" cried Mrs. Sutton scoffingly. "Why, thewoman would sooner go to the altar with a handsome, dashinglibertine, who had broken hearts by the dozen, than marry a quiet, honest Christian, who had never breathed of love to any ears excepthers. The aim of her life is to create or experience a sensation. Idon't quite see how she could have made trouble in that sad affair, but I should like to be positive that she did not. "

"You may safely acquit her of that sin, " rejoined Mabel. "There wasneither need nor room for her interference. Whatever may have beenher inclination, she was shrewd enough to perceive that the naturalcourse of events was bringing about the desired end--if it were adesirable one to her--without her help or hindrance. But, aunt!doesn't it strike you that this is a very profitless talk, and veryuncharitable? It is a sorry task, this volunteering our assistanceto the dead past to bury its dead. And I, for one, have too muchbound up in the future to offer my service in the painful work. Look! is not this pretty?"

She was embroidering a white merino cloak for an infant, in apattern so rich and elaborate, that Mrs. Sutton groaned incommingled admiration and sympathy as she inspected it. 

"You are throwing time and strength away upon this work!" sheexpostulated. "I don't know another lady in your circumstances whowould not take her friends' advice, and put out all the sewing youneed to have done. But your eyes and fingers have laboredincessantly for six months upon the finest work you could devise, and you begin to look like a shadow. I don't wonder Mr. Dorranceseems uneasy sometimes. He complained this morning that you did nottake enough exercise in the open air. "

"He is not anxious, nor should he be. I am well, and stronger thanyou will believe. As to the work, it has been one great delight ofmy existence during the period you speak of. I could not endure thatanybody but myself should assist in fashioning the dainty, tinygarments that make my hope an almost present reality. Every stitchseems to bring nearer the fulfilment of the dear promise. I onlyregret that this is the last of the set. I shall be at a loss foroccupation for the next two months. And I fear from somethingHerbert said to-day, that he does not intend for me to return toAlbany until the spring fairly opens. Dr. Williams has been talkingto him about my cough. "

"Dr. Williams is a fussy old woman, and Mr. Dorrance"--began Mrs. Sutton. 

Mabel quietly took up the word. 

"Mr. Dorrance is ignorant of diseases and medicines, as men usuallyare who have not studied these with a view to practise uponthemselves or others. I have said that he is not really uneasy; buthe says, and with truth, that the Northern March and April are rawand cold, and will try my strength severely. Winston and Clara sharein his fears. It is very kind in them to tender me the hospitalitiesof their house for so long a time, but I should feel more at home inmy own, during my illness and convalescence. "

"Why not tell your husband this plainly?"

"Because it might bias his judgment and embarrass his action. I amwilling to do as he thinks best. "

There were not many subjects upon which Mrs. Sutton was irascible, but she patted the floor with her foot now as if this was one ofthem--her discontent finding vent at length in what she regarded asa perfectly safe query. 

"Will he remain with you?"

"He cannot. His business is large and increasing. He can afford butthis one fortnight vacation. "

"How do you expect to get along without him?"

"I expect my dear old aunt to come often and see me, " said Mabelaffectionately, parrying the catechism "Clara suggested, of her ownaccord, when the extension of my visit was discussed, that youshould be invited to be with me late in April--and I don't want youto refuse. Do you understand, and mean to be complaisant? You areall the mother I have ever known, auntie. "

"My lamb! you need not fear lest I shall not improve everyopportunity of seeing and comforting you. I shall return a civil andgrateful reply to Mrs. Aylett's invitation, for your sake! and forthe same reason try and remember, while I remain her guest, that herright to be and to reign at Ridgeley is superior to yours or mine. "

The good lady was not to be harshly censured if she now and then, inprivate confabulation with her favorite, let fall a remark which wasthe reverse of complimentary to her niece-in-law. Mabel's marriagewas the signal for a radical reorganization of the Ridgeley domesticestablishment, by which Mrs. Sutton was reduced from the busy, responsible situation of housekeeper to the unenviable one ofunnoticed and unconsulted supernumerary. 

"Not that I wish you to desert your old quarters, still less to feellike a stranger with us, " said Mrs. Aylett graciously, while sheaffixed shining brass labels to the keys of closets, sideboards, andstore-rooms--the keys Aunt Rachel could distinguish from oneanother, and all others in the world, in the darkest night, withoutany labels whatever; which had grown smooth and bright by manyyears' friction of her nimble fingers. "But Mr. Aylett wishes me toassume the real, as well as nominal, government of theestablishment"--Mrs. Aylett was fond of the polysyllable asconveying better than any other term she could employ the grandeurof her position as Baroness of Ridgeley. "He insists that theservants are growing worthless and refractory under the rule of somany. Hereafter--this is his law, not mine--hereafter, thoseattached to the house department are to come to me about theirorders, and the plantation workmen to him. I shall undoubtedly havemuch trouble in curing the satellites appointed to me of theirirregular habits, and reducing them to something resembling system;but Winston's extreme dissatisfaction with the anarchy thatprevailed under the ancien regime moves me to the undertaking. "

"They have always--for generations back, I may say--been calledexcellent servants; faithful in the discharge of their duties, andattached to their owners, " returned Mrs. Sutton tremulously. "Andsince I have been in charge--ever since my dear sister's death, Ihave done my best with them, as with everything else committed by mynephew to my care. But of course I have nothing to urge against yourplan. If I can help you in any way"---

"Thank you! You are extremely kind, my dear madam, " honeyedly. "ButI should be ashamed and sorry to be compelled to call upon you forassistance in performing what you have done so easily andsuccessfully for fifteen years. I must learn confidence in my ownpowers, if I would be respected by underlings. They would be quickto detect the power behind the throne; let me hold counsel with youever so secretly, and my authority would be weakened by thediscovery. I have not the vanity to believe that my maiden attemptat housewifery will be attended by the distinction that has crownedyours, but practice will perfect in this, as in other labors. And mydear Mrs. Sutton, Mr. Aylett bids me say, in his name, as it givesme pleasure to do in my own, that although your occupation is gone, you are ever welcome to a home at Ridgeley, free of all expense. Itis our hope that you may still content yourself here, even if Mabelhas gone from the nest. I suppose, however, nothing will satisfyher, when she goes to housekeeping, but having you with her as apermanent institution. My brother intimated as much to me before hismarriage. "

Declining with mild hauteur, that gave great, but secret amusementto her would-be benefactress, the handsome offer of a free asylum, Mrs. Sutton went to live with a cousin of her late husband's, whosesnug plantation was situated about twelve miles from the Aylettplace, and in the neighborhood of the Tazewells. It was a pleasant, but not a permanent arrangement, she gave out to her numerousfriends, any of whom would have accounted themselves favored by anacceptance of a home for life in their families. 

"Ridgeley was changed and lonely since Mabel's departure, and herown habits were too active to be conformed to those of so small ahousehold. Indeed, there was nothing for her to do there any longer, so she was glad to avail herself of Mrs. William Sutton's invitationto stay a while with her. The children made the house so lively. Inthe fall, the house Mr. Dorrance was having built for his Southernbride would be ready for them, and Mabel's claim upon her aunt'ssociety and services must take precedence of all others. "

The fall came, and Mabel wrote detailed descriptions of thebeautiful home Herbert had prepared for her; wrote, moreover, withmore feeling and animation, of the new and precious hopes ofhappiness held out to her loving heart in the prospect of what thespring would give into her arms, but said nothing of her aunt'scoming to her for the winter, or for an indefinite period, thebounds of which were to be set only by her beloved relative'swishes. The omission was trying enough to the foster-mother's heartand patience, even while she believed the knowledge of it to beconfined to herself. She could still hold up her head bravely amongher kindred and acquaintances, and talk of the "dear child's" goodfortune and contentment with it; how popular and beloved she wasamong them, and what an elegant house her generous husband hadbestowed upon her; could still hint at the instability of her ownplans, and the possibility that she might, at any day or hour, determine to leave her native State and follow her "daughter" intowhat the latter represented was not an unpleasant exile. 

An end was put to this innocent deception--for, if any deception canbe termed innocent, it is surely that by which he who practises itis himself beguiled--the blameless guile was then arrested by astory repeated to her by her indignant hosts, as having emanateddirectly from Mrs. Aylett. She had given expression, publicly, at alarge dinner-party, to her amazement and pity at the self-delusionunder which "poor, dear Mrs. Sutton" labored, in expecting to takeup her residence with Mr. And Mrs. Dorrance. 

"My brother laments her hallucination as much, if not more than hiswife does, " she said, in her best modulations of creamy compassion. "But, indeed, my dear Mrs. Branch, they are not accountable for it. Not a syllable has ever escaped either of them which a reasonableperson could construe into a request that she should become aninmate of their household. So careful have they been to avoidexciting her expectations in this regard, that they have refrainedfrom extending to her an invitation for even a month. Those who aremost familiar with the poor lady's peculiarities do not require tobe told how ill-advised would be the arrangement she desires. Mabelis a thoroughly sensible woman, and too devoted a wife to advocateanything so injudicious, while her husband is naturally jealous forher dignity and the inviolability of her authority in her own house. Mrs. Sutton left Ridgeley in opposition to our earnest entreatiesthat she would spend the evening of her days with us. I was assuredthen, as I am now, that she would receive the same love and respectnowhere else. But she could not brook the semblance of interferencewith her rule where she had reigned so long and irresponsibly. Andwhile we may deplore, we can hardly find fault with this weakness. It must have been a trial--and not an ordinary one--to be obliged, at her age, to resign the sceptre she had swayed for upward offifteen years. "

"'Their words are smoother than oil, but in their mouths is a drawnsword, '" quoted Mrs. Sutton, in meek protest against the sugaredmalice of this slander when it was told to her. "This is none ofMabel's doings. She loves me dearly as ever, but one might as wellhope to move the Blue Ridge as to teach that pragmatical husband ofhers to consult her wishes and her good, before he does his own. Hishead is hard as a flint, and his heart--never mind! Heaven forgiveme if I am unjust to him! I should be thankful that he does notreally mean to misuse my darling. Now, my dears, you see howundesirable an inmate of any house I am rated to be. If you wish toretract your offer of a hiding-place for my old head, I shall nottake it amiss. Thanks to Providence and my dear Frederic I haveenough, to maintain me decently anywhere in this country. I shallnever be chargeable to anybody for my food, victuals, and lodgings. If you are willing to let me board here and do odd stitches for thechildren when they tear their aprons and rub out the knees of theirtrowsers--just to keep me out of mischief, you understand!--Ipromise to be as little officious in housewifely concerns as it isin my nature to be. "

William Sutton and his wife--a woman who was both sagacious andamiable--reiterated their assurances that she could not confer agreater boon upon them than by remaining where she was, and withthem she had stayed until Mr. Aylett sent over the Ridgeleycarriage, one day in the third week in February, with a note fromMabel, begging her aunt to present herself, without needless delay, at the homestead, since she was not reckoned sufficiently strong toattempt the uneven and muddy roads that still separated them. Mrs. Aylett also dispatched a billet by the coachman, the graceful burdenof which was the same as that of Mabel's petition, and the twolong-sundered friends were speedily together; fellow-partakers of abountiful and painstaking hospitality, which kept them continuallyin mind that they were guests, and not at home. 

The dialogue relative to Rosa Tazewell's matrimonial project tookplace on the third day of Mrs. Sutton's visit, in Mabel's chamber, and when the former, having talked off the topmost bubbles of herrighteous wrath, recollected several very importantletters--business and friendly--she ought to have written a weekago, and trotted off to her room where she could perform theneglected duty without visible and outward temptation to that shewas more fond of doing--to wit, talking--the young wife continuedto work steadily, and with apparent composure. It was not a brightface on which the light from the western windows fell, yet it wasnot unhappy. She had never pretended to herself that her marriagewas a step toward happiness, but she had believed that it wouldsecure to her a larger share of peace, immunity from disturbance, and independence of thought and action, than fell to her lot in herbrother's house, and for these negative benefits she longed wearily. 

Mr. Aylett was not wantonly or openly unkind to his ward, andungenerous persecution was utterly incompatible with the temper andhabits of his lady wife, but between them they had contrived to makethe girl's life very miserable. It was Winston's cue--adopted, letus hope, from the strict sense of duty he avowed had ever actuatedhim in his treatment of the charge bequeathed him by his father--todeport himself with calm, seldom-relaxed severity to one who hadshowed herself to be entirely unworthy of confidence; to exerciseunremitting surveillance upon her personal association with youngpeople out of the family and her correspondence, and to curb by lookand oral reproof the most distant approach to what he condemned asindiscreet levity. In a thousand ways--many of them ingenious, andall severe, she was made to feel the curtailment of her liberty, andgiven to understand that it was the just retribution of her unluckylove-affair with an unprincipled adventurer. Mrs. Aylett professedto discountenance this policy--to be Mabel's secret friend and ally, while she deemed it unwise to combat her husband's will by overtmeasures for his sister's protection. 

Thus, for a year, the object of his real displeasure and heraffected commiseration lived under a cloud, too proud to complain ofher thraldom, but feeling it every second; mourning, in theseclusion of the trebly barred chambers of her heart, over hershattered idol and squandered affections, and fancying, in themorbid distrust engendered by the discovery of her lover's baseness, and the weight of her brother's unsparing reprobation of her insaneimprudence, that she descried in every face, save Aunt Rachel's, contempt or rebuke for the faux pas that had so nearly cast a stigmaupon her name and lineage. 

In Herbert Dorrance's honest admiration and assiduous courtship themost suspicious scrutiny could detect no tincture of either of thesefeelings, and it was not long before she took refuge in his societyfrom the risk of being wounded and angered by the supposedexhibition of them in others. Here was one man who could not butknow of her folly, in all its length, breadth, and depth, who was awitness of her daily chastisement for it at her guardian's hands, yet who esteemed her unsullied by the unworthy attachment, undegraded by punishment. Gratitude had a powerful auxiliary in herfeverish longing to escape from scenes that kept alive to the quick, memories she would have annihilated, had her ability beencommensurate with her will. All other associations with the house inwhich she, and her father before her, had been born, and in whichshe had passed her childhood and girlish days, were overrun by thethickly thronging and pertinacious recollections of the two shortweeks Frederic Chilton had spent there with her. He haunted herwalks and drives; trod, by her side, the resounding floor of thevine-covered portico, sat with her in parlor and halls; sang to heraccompaniment when she would have exorcised the phantom bymusic--was always, whenever and wherever he appeared--the tender, ingenuous, manly youth she had loved and reverenced as theimpersonation of her ideal lord; the demi-god whom she hadworshipped, heart and soul--set, in her exulting imagination nolower than the angels, and beheld in the end, --with besmirched browand debased mien, a disgraced sensualist, not merely a deceiver ofanother woman's innocent confidence, and her tempter to dishonor andwretchedness, but a poltroon--a whipped coward who had not dared tolift voice or pen in denial or extenuation of his crime. 

The law of reaction is of more nearly universal application in moraland in physical science than men are willing to believe. We haveseen how cunningly Rosa calculated upon it, and wiser people thanshe, every day, attribute the most momentous actions of their livesto its influence. 

"My advice to every woman is to marry for GOODNESS--simpleintegrity of word and deed!" said a lady, once in my hearing. 

She was an excellent scholar, attractive in person and in manner, gifted in conversation and opulent in purse. Her hand had beensought in marriage by more than one, and in early womanhood she hadmade choice among her suitors of a man whose plausible exterior wasthe screen of a black heart and infamous life. Convinced of hermistake barely in time to escape copartnership in his stained nameand ruined fortunes, she set up the history of her deadly peril as abeacon to others as ardent and unwary as her old-time self. Eitherto put a double point upon the moral, or to insure herself againstsimilar mishap in the future, she wedded an amiable and correctfool, a mere incidental in the work of human creation, who was asincapable of making his mark upon the age that produced him as anangle-worm is of lettering solid granite. 

Mabel's husband was not a simpleton, or characterless; but if he hadbeen, his prospetts of success would not have been materiallydamaged by her knowledge of his deficiencies. A union with him was asafe investment, and must be several degrees more supportable thanwas her position at Ridgeley, banned by its owner and patronized byhis wife. I neither excuse nor blame her for thus deciding andtransacting. Should I censure, a majority of my readers--nearly allof the masculine portion--would pick holes in my unpracticalphilosophy, scout my reasoning as illogical, brand my conclusions aspernicious--winding up their protest with the sigh of the mazeddisciples, when stunned by the great Teacher's deliverance upon thesubject of divorce, "If the case of the man be so with his wife, itis not good to marry!"

Which dogma I likewise decline to dispute--falling back thankfullyupon the blessed stronghold of unambitious story-tellers--namely, that my vocation is to describe what IS--not make fancy-sketches ofmillennial days, when rectitude shall be the best, because mostremunerative policy; when sincerity shall be wisdom--proven andindisputable, and consistency the rule of human faith and practicethe world over, instead of being, as it now is, one of the lost (ornever invented) fine arts. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

JULIUS LENNOX. 

"You are puttin' your eyes out, workin' so stiddy, honey, and it'sgettin' dark. "

Mabel aroused herself from her intent attitude, and looked at thewindow. There was a brassy glimmer in the cloudy west; the rest ofthe sky was covered by thick vapors. 

"The days are still very short, " she said, folding her work, andbecoming aware that her eyes ached from long and close study of theintricate pattern. 

It was Mammy Phillis who had interrupted her reverie, and she nowlaid an armful of seasoned hickory wood upon the hearth, and setherself about mending the fire, taking up the ashes which hadaccumulated since morning, putting the charred sticks together, andcollecting the embers into a compact bed. 

"We're goin' to have fallin' weather 'fore long, " she observed, oracularly. "The wind has changed since dinner, and when the windwhirls about on a sudden, we upon this ridge is the fust to find itout. I must see that them lazy chil'len, Lena and Lizy, fills yourwood-box to-night with dry wood; I'd be loth to have you ketch coldwhile you are here. "

"You are very good, Mammy, but why do you trouble yourself to attendto my fire? You should have sent up Lena with that great load oflogs. "

"I ain't easy without I see to you myself, at least once a day. It'minds me of the good ole times to wait upon you. O, Lord! howlong?" shaking her tartan turban with a portentous groan, her chinalmost scraping the hearth, as she stooped to blow into the craterof fiery coals. 

Mabel was too well versed in the customs of the race and class totake alarm at the mysterious invocation. She watched the old woman'smovements in a sort of pensive amusement at the recollection of anincident of her childhood, brought vividly to her mind by theservant's air and exclamation. 

She was playing in the yard one day, when "Mammy" emerged from hercottage-door, and came toward her, with a batch of sweet cakes shehad just baked for her nursling. 

In crossing the gravel walk leading to the "house, " she struck hertoe against the brick facing of this, and the cakes flew in alldirections. 

"Good Lord! my poor toe and my poor chile's cakes!" was her vehementinterjection; and as she bent to gather up the cookies, she gruntedout the same adjuration, coupled with "my poor ole back!"--anegress' stock subject of complaint, let her be but twenty years oldand as strong as an ox. 

"Mammy!" said the privileged child, reprovingly, "I thought you weretoo good a Christian to break the commandments in that way. Youshouldn't take the Lord's name in vain. "

"Gracious! Sugar-pie! how you talk! Ef I don't call 'pon Him in timeof trouble, who can I ask to help me?" was the confident reply. 

With no thought of any more formidable cause of outcry than a crampin the much-quoted spine, Mabel dreamed on sketchily and indolently, enjoying the sight of the once-familiar process of building awood-fire, until the yellow serpents of flame crept, red-tonguedthrough the interstices of the lower logs, and the larger and upperbegan to sing the low, drowsy tune, more suggestive of home-cheerand fireside comfort than the shrill, monotonous chirp of the famouscricket on the hearth. The pipe-clayed bricks on which the andironsrested were next swept clean; the hearth-brush hung up on its nail, and the architect of the edifice stepped back with a satisfied nod. 

"I have often wished for a glimpse of one of your beautiful fires, Mammy, since I have been in Albany, " said Mabel, kindly. "Our roomsand halls are all heated by furnaces. An open fireplace would be anovelty to Northerners, and such a roaring, blazing pile of hardwood as that, be considered at unpardonable extravagance. "

"Humph! I never did have no 'pinion of them people. " Phillis tossedher turban and cocked her prominent chin. "It's all make money, andsave! save! If I was 'lowed to go with you, I'll be bound I'd seeyou have sech things as you've been 'customed to. The new folks, them what comed from nothin' and nowhar, and made every dollar theycan call their own with their own hands, don't know how to feel forand look after real ladies. "

"You are wrong about that, if you mean that I have not every comfortI could ask. My house is warm in the bitterest weather, and far morehandsomely furnished than this. And I have many kind friends. I likethe Northern people, and so would you, if you knew them well. "

"They send dreadful poor samples down this way, then, " mutteredPhillis, significantly. "And, some as pertends to be somebody isnobody, or wuss, ef the truth was known. Don't talk to me 'bout 'em, Miss Mabel, darling! 'Twas a mighty black day for us when one on 'emfust laid eyes upon Mars' Winston. You've hearn, ain't you, that myhouse is to be tore down, and I'm to go into the quarters 'long withthe field hands and sich like common trash? So long as our skins isall the same color, some folks can't see no difference in us. "

"I had not heard it. I am sorry. "

Mabel spoke earnestly, for "Mammy's house, " a neat frame cottage astory-and-a-half high, embowered in locust-trees, and with athrifty, although aged garden--honeysuckle clambering all over thefront, was to her one of the dearest pictures of her early days. Shecould see herself, now--the motherless babe whom Aunt Rachel andMammy had never let feel her orphanage--sitting on the door-step, bedecking her doll with the odorous pink-and-white blossoms insummer time, and in autumn with the light-red berries. 

"Why is that done?" she asked. 

"I spiles the prospect, honey!" fiercely--ironical. "Northern folkshas tender eyes, and I hurts 'em--me and my poor little house whatole marster built for me when Mars' Winston was a baby, and yourblessed ma couldn't be easy 'thout I was near her--WE spiles theprospect! So, it must be knocked down and carted away for rubbish tobuild pig-pens, I 'spose, and me sent off to live 'mong low-livedniggers, sech as I've always held myself above. She ain't never putit into Mars' Winston's head to cut down the trees that shets offthe "prospect" of the colored people's burying-ground from herwinder. There's some things she'd as lief not see. I oughtn't tomind this so much, I know, for I ain't got long for to stay herenohow, but I did hope to die in my nest!" sobbing behind her apron. 

"I am very sorry--more grieved than you can think!" repeated Mabel. "If I could help you in any way, I would. But I cannot!"

"Bless your heart! Don't I know that, dear! Here, you ain't got nomore power nor me. But I WAS a-thinkin' that maybe you wouldn'tthink me too old for a nuss when you come to want one, and couldmanage to take me with you when you went home. I'se a heap of wearin me yit, and there ain't nothing 'bout babies I don't understand. "

Mabel colored painfully. 

"If I had my way"--she began--then altered her plan of reply. "Icould not enter into such an arrangement without consulting Mr. Dorrance, Mammy, and I am afraid he would not think as favorably ofit as you and I do. He has been brought up with different ideas, yousee. "

"Um-HUM!"

An interjection capable of as many and as varied meanings in themouth of a colored woman of her stamp as was little Jean Baptiste's"altro!" It signified now--"I comprehend a great deal more than youwant me to perceive--you poor, downtrodden angel!"

"Um-HUM. I always did say he was his sister's own brother--for allthey don't look a bit alike. What's born into a man never comesout!"

"Mr. Dorrance is my husband, Mammy! I shall not let you speakdisrespectfully of him. He does what he believes to be right andjust, " returned Mabel, sternly. 

"I ain't a-goin' to arger that with you, my sugar-plum! You'reright to stand up for him. I beg your pardon ef I've seemed sassy orhurt your feelin's. And I dar' say, there mayn't be nothin' wuss'bout him nor his outside. And that don't matter so much, efpeople's insides is clean and straight in the sight of the Lord. ButHER outside is all that's decent about her, ef you'll listen tome--"

"You are forgetting yourself again!" said Mabel, unable to suppressa smile. "Mrs. Aylett is your mistress--"

The woman's queer behavior arrested the remonstrance. Stepping ontiptoe to the door she locked it, and approached her young mistresswith an ostentatious attempt at treading lightly, shaking her headand pursing up her mouth in token of secrecy, while she fumbled inher bosom for something that seemed hard to get at. Drawing it forthat last she laid it in Mabel's lap--a small leather wallet, glossywith use, tattered at the corners, and tied up with a bit of dirtytwine. 

"What is this, and what am I to do with it?"

Mabel shrank from touching it, so foul and generally disreputablewas its appearance. 

"Keep both your ears open, dearie, and I'll tell you all I know!"

And with infinite prolixity and numerous digressions she recountedhow, in removing the sodden clothing of the unknown man who had beenpicked up on the lawn on that memorable stormy Chistmas night, morethan a year before, this had slipped from an inner breast-pocket ofthe coat, "right into her hand. " Not caring to disturb the doctor'sexamination of his patient, or to tempt the cupidity of herfellow-servants by starting the notion that there might be othervaluables hidden in the articles they handled so carelessly, she hadpocketed it, unobserved by them, guessing that it would be ofservice at the inquest. Her purpose of producing it then was, according to her showing, reversed by Mrs. Aylett's stolen visit tothe chamber and minute inspection of garments she would not havetouched unless urged to the disagreeable task by some mightyconsideration of duty, self-interest, or fear. 

"'Then, ' thinks I"--Phillis stated the various steps of herreasoning--"'you wouldn't take the trouble to pull over them nasty, muddy close, 'thout you expected to get some good out on 'em, or wasafeard of somethin' or 'nother fallin' into somebody else's hands. 'Whichsomever this mought be, 'twasn't my business to be gittin' up arow and a to-do before the crowner and all them gentlemen. 'Leastsaid soonest mended, ' says I to myself, and keeps mum about thewhole thing--what I'd got, and what I'd seen. But when I come tothink it all over arterward, I was skeered for true at what I'ddone, and for fear Mars' Winston wouldn't like it. What reason couldI give him for hidin' of the pocketbook, ef I give it up to him? EfI tole all the truth, SHE'D be mad as a March hare, and like as notface me down that all I had said was a dream or a lie, or that I wasdrunk that night and couldn't see straight. I'd hearn her tell toomany fibs with a smooth tongue and a sweet smile not to be sure ofthat! So, all I should git for my care of the repertation of myfam'ly would be her ill-will, and to be 'cused by other people ofstealin', and for the rest of my days she'd do all she could tospite me. For I'm sure as I stand here, Miss Mabel, that she knew, or thought she knew, somethin' 'bout that poor, despisable wretchthat died up in the garret. What else brought him a-spyin' 'roundhere, and what was there to make her faint when she ketched sight ofhim a-lookin' in at her through the winder? and what COULD a senther upstars when everybody else was asleep, fur to haul his closeabout, and poke them fine white fingers of hern into his pockets, and pull his WHISKERY face over to the light so's to see it better?Depend 'pon it, there's a bad story at the bottom of this somewhere. I've hearn of many a sich that came of gentlemens' marryingforringers what nobody knowed anything about. Anyhow, I want you totake keer of this 'ere pocketbook. Ef I was to die all of a suddent, and 'twas found 'mong my things, some mischief mought be hatched outon it. It's safer in your hands nor it is in mine. Now, I'll jestlight your lamp, and you can 'xamine it, and pitch it into the fire, ef you like, when you're through. "

In a cooler moment Mabel would have hesitated to obey the advice ofan ignorant, prejudiced person, her inferior in station andintelligence. But in the whirl of astonishment, incredulity, andspeculation created by the tale she had heard, she untied the stringwhich formed the primitive fastening of the worn wallet, andunclosed it. 

The main compartment contained four tickets, issued by as manydifferent pawnbrokers, testifying that such and such articles hadbeen deposited with them for and in consideration of moneys advancedby them to Thomas Lindsay; a liquor-seller's score against WilliamJones--unpaid; and a tavern bill, in which brandy and water, whiskeyand mint-juleps, were the principal items charged against EdmundJackson. This last was the only paper which bore the indorsement"Rec'd payment, " and this circumstance had, probably, led to itspreservation. The adjoining division of the wallet was sewed up withstout black thread and Mabel had to resort to her scissors beforeshe could get at its contents. These were a couple of wornenvelopes, crumpled and dog-eared, and stained with liquor or saltwater, but still bearing the address, in a feminine hand, of"Lieutenant Julius Lennox, U. S. N. " In addition to this, one wasdirected to Havana, Cuba; the other to Calcutta, in care, of amercantile or banking-house at each place. A third cover bore thesuperscription, "CERTIFICATE, " in bold characters. 

The negress' watchful eyes dilated with greedy expectancy at Mrs. Dorrance's ghastly face when this last had been examind, but she wasfoiled if she hoped for any valuable addition to her store ofinformation, or anything resembling elucidation of her pet mystery. 

"It will take me some time to read all these, " remarked Mabel, stillscanning the half-sheet she held. "You had better not wait, Mammy. They are safe with me. No one else shall see them, and no harm cancome to you through them. "

She promised mechanically what she supposed would soonest buy forher privacy and needed quiet, and gave no heed to the manifestdisappointment of her visitor. 

When she was at last alone, Mrs. Dorrance relocked the door, andbent close to the lamp, as if more light upon the surface of thedocument would tend to clear up the terrible secret thus strangelycommitted to her discretion and mercy. The paper was a certificate, drawn up in regular form, and signed by a clergyman, whose addresswas appended below, in a different hand writing--of a marriagebetween Julius Lennox and Clara Louise Dorrance. 

"Her very name!" repeated the whitening lips. "I remember asking heronce what the 'L' in her signature stood for. "

But while she said it, there was a look in the reader's eye thatbespoke inability or reluctance to grapple with the revelationthreatened by the discovery. 

"The letters may tell me more!" she added, in the same frightenedwhisper, refolding the certificate. 

They did--for they were in the long, sloping chirography of hersister-in-law, and signed "Your ever-fond, but lonely wife. " Eachcontained, moreover, allusions to "Ellis, " to "Clermont, " to"Julia, " and to "Herbert"--all family names in the Dorranceconnection; spoke gratefully of her parents' kindness to his "poorLouise" in the absence of "her beloved Julius;" and was liberallyspiced with passionate protestations of her inconsolableness andyearnings for his return. Both were dated ten years back, and thepaper was yellow with time, besides being creased and thumbed as bymany readings. 

"What am I to do?" thought Mabel, sinking into her chair, tremblingall over with terror and incertitude. 

If there were one sentiment in Winston Aylett's heart that equalledhis haughtiness, it was love for his wife. But could it be that hehad totally forgotten pride and his habitual caution in theselection of the woman who was to be the partner of his home, fortune, and reputation--possibly the mother of children who were toperpetuate the noble name he bore? By what miracle of unrighteouscraft, what subornation of witnesses, what concealments, whatbarefaced and unscrupulous falsehoods had this adventuress beenimposed upon him as unmarried, when the evidence of her formerwedlock was held by a low stroller--a drunken wretch who mightbetray it in an unguarded or insane hour, and who, judging from hisexterior, would not be averse to publishing or selling theinformation if he could make more money by doing this than bypreserving the secret. And how came he by these papers?

Confused, partly by his numerous aliases, more by incapacity toconceive of such depth and complication of horror as were revealedby the idea, the perplexed thinker did not, for a while, admit toherself the possibility that the nameless vagabond may have beenClara's living husband, instead of a mercenary villain who hadsecured surreptitiously the proofs of a marriage she wished theworld to forget. Having learned that she had wedded, a second time, in her maiden name, and that her antecedents were unsuspected in herpresent home, the thought of extorting a bribe to continued silence, from the wealthy lady of Ridgeley, would have occurred to any commonrascal with more audacity than principle. It was but a spark--themerest point of light that showed her the verge of the precipicetoward which one link after another of the chain of circumstantialevidence was dragging her. 

Groping dizzily among her recollections of that Christmas night, there gleamed luridly upon her the vision of Mrs. Aylett's strangesmile, as she said, "It may be that his wife, if she were cognizantof his condition, would not lift a finger or take a step to save hislife, or to prolong it for an hour!"

Then, in response to Mabel's indignant reply--the momentary passiondarting from her hitherto languorous orbs, and vibrating in heraccents, in adding--"There are women in whose hearts the monumentto departed affection is a hatred that can never die. "

If this man were a stranger, from whom she had nothing to fear, whyher extraordinary agitation at seeing him, even imperfectly, throughthe window? She must have known him well to recognize him in thedarkness and at that fleeting glimpse. Perhaps she had believed himdead, until then! This would account for her clandestine visit tohis chamber, to which Mrs. Sutton and her niece had gone, withouteffort at concealment; explain the rigid examination of his clothingensuing upon her scrutiny of his features. 

"I must be mad!" Mabel said, here, pressing her hand to her head. "There does not live the woman, however wicked and hypocritical, whocould sit at ease in the midst of ill-gotten luxury, on an inclementnight, and talk smilingly of other things, if she suspected that oneshe had known, much less loved, lay dying in wretchedness andsolitude so near her. "

The vagrant was some evil-disposed spy, whose person Clara knew, andwhose intentions she had reason to dread were unfriendly. Had shedared--for she was daring--to attempt this nefarious plot againstthe fair fame and happiness of an honorable gentleman, her familywould not have become her accomplices. They could not have blindedthemselves to the perils of the enterprise, the extremeprobabilities of detection, the consequences of Winston's anger. Herbert, at least, would have forbidden the unlawful deceit. Whenhis sister was wedded to Winston, he believed that her first husbandwas no longer in the land of the living--as she must also have done. 

"For he is a good--an upright man!" thought the wife. "But he wasprivy to the fact of her previous marriage! Why have I never heardof it? He has invariably spoken of Clara as having lived single inher mother's house up to the date of her union with my brother. "

She could not but remember, likewise, that there was a certain toneabout the Dorrance connection she had never quite comprehended orliked--a reticence with respect to details of family history, whilethey were voluble upon generalities, over-fond of lauding oneanother's exploits, virtues, and accomplishments; referring inwonderful pride to "our beloved father, " and extolling "our preciousmother, " who, by the way, was so little in request among thechildren, that she had, since Clara's marriage, occupied apartmentsin a second-rate boarding-house in Boston. Mabel, when convinced ofthe futility of her hope of having Aunt Rachel with her, hadproposed to offer Mrs. Dorrance a house in the commodious mansion ofher youngest son; but Herbert, with no show of gratification at whathe must have known was a sacrifice of her inclinations, had coollyreasoned down the suggestion. The whole tribe--if she excepted herhusband, and perhaps Clara--had, to her perception, a tinge ofBohemianism, although all were in comfortable circumstances, andlived showily. Mabel had often chided herself for uncharitablejudgment and groundless prejudice, in admitting these impressions ofher relatives-in-law; but they returned upon her in this twilightreverie with the force of convictions she was, each moment, lessable to combat. What darker secret lay back of the concealment herrectitude of principle and sense of justice declared to beunjustifiable? and might not this concerted and persistent reserveimply others yet more culpable?

It showed her correct estimate of her brother's character, that shenever for a second accused him of connivance in the deceit practisedupon his relations and neighbors. He would not have scrupled to weda widow, knowing and acknowledging her to be such. Nothing--notlove, tenfold more ardent and irrational than that he felt for hissiren wife--could have wrought upon him to introduce to the world, as Mrs. Aylett of Ridgeley, one who had been before married, and wasashamed, for any cause whatever, to avow this. The blemish left bythe acrid breath of common scandal upon a woman's fame was to himineffaceable by any process yet discovered by pitying man or angels. The maligned one may not have erred from the straitest road ofvirtue and discretion, but she had been "talked about, " and was noconsort for him. In his State and caste, private marriages werethings disallowed, and but one shade more respectable than liasonsthat did not pretend to the sanctity of wedlock. What would he saywhen the contents of this dingy pocket-book were spread before him?Ought his sister to do this?

COULD she? He had not earned compassionate consideration from her byany act of gentleness and forbearance. He had handled thelopping-knife without ruth, and let the gaping wounds bleed as longas the bitter ichor would ooze from her heart. She had learnedhardness and self-control from the lesson, but not vindictiveness. Now that the power was hers to visit upon his haughty spiritsomething of the humiliation and distress he had not spared her;that it was her turn to harangue upon mesalliances and love-matches, and want of circumspect investigation into early records beforecommitting one's self to a contract of marriage--she recoiled atthe thought; felt, in her exceeding pity for the trustful husband, astirring of the love she had herself once borne him in the days whenthe changed homestead was her world, and its master a king amongmen. 

And yet--and yet--was it the truest friendship--the most prudentcourse to prolong the ignorance which left him liable at any momentto be shocked into the perpetration of some desperate deed by thediscovery, through some other channel, of his wife's perfidy, andthe abominable snare that bad been woven about him!

CHAPTER XIV. 

"BORN DEAD. "

MABEL was still turning the vexed question of right and expediencyover in her fast-heating brain, the next evening, as she sat in theparlor, and feigned to hearken to the diligent duett-practisinggoing on at the piano, her husband and Mrs. Aylett being theperformers. 

Mrs. Sutton had gone home that afternoon, engaging to return for alonger sojourn in the course of a month. Mr. Aylett read hisnewspaper at one side of the centre table, and his sister employedher fingers and eyes at the other with a trifle of fancy-work---anantimacassar she was crocheting for her hostess. Her industrious orfidgetty habits were chronic and inveterate, and people, inremarking upon them, did not reflect that this species ofrestlessness is in itself a disease, seldom analyzed, more seldomcured. There are few students or physicians of human nature, in thisworld of superficial observers, who go deep enough into the springsof man's action to distinguish the external symptoms of heart-cancerfrom ossification, or to learn ihe difference between satiety andatrophy. A night of nervous sleeplessness, a day of irresolution anddread, had aggravated almost beyond her control the restlessnesswhich in Mabel was the unerring indication of unhealthiness of mindand body. To sit still was impracticable; to talk connectedly andeasily would soon be as difficult. She was glad to see Aunt Rachelgo--immeasurably relieved when a musical evening was proposed by thebrother and sister, seconding the motion with alacrity that calledforth a pleased smile from the one, and a look of surprisedinquisitiveness from the other. 

"You have grown more fond of instrumental music, " said Mrs. Aylett, half interrogatively. "You used always to prefer vocal. "

"Try me and see what an appreciative listener I am, " rejoined Mabel, with a sickly smile, and the concert commenced. 

Overmuch thought upon the revelation of the preceding day hadbegotten in her, fears of the imminence of the dangers to Winston'speace of mind--a persuasion that the birds of the air and therestless air itself might bear to him the news she still withheld. Mammy had averred, upon her cross-examination, that "not a livingsoul had ever seen the wallet" since it fell from the dying man'spocket--an affirmation Mabel could not decide whether to believe ordiscredit. If she could but be certain that the secret was all hers!

She trembled guiltily when her brother folded his last paper, andsauntered around to the back of her chair, leaning upon it, while heaffected to be interested in her work, and the too-ready scarletblood pulsed now hotly in her cheeks with each moment of his muteobservation. 

"I heard a piece of news to-day, " he said, presently, in his mosteven tone; but Mabel's start upon her seat was almost a leap, whileher fingers moved faster and more irregularly. 

"I suspect, from your unsettled demeanor this evening, that itreached you before it did me, " continued he. "I can attribute yourbadly suppressed pertubation to no other cause. Mrs. Sutton is suchan indefatigable gossip, that this item could hardly have passed herby. Has she told you that Rosa Tazewell is shortly to become Mrs. Chilton?"

"She has. "

He thought she was nerving herself to a simulation of hardihood, andthe long-indulged habit of censorship was strong upon him. 

"I had trusted, until to-day, Mabel, that you had conquered thatdisgraceful weakness, " he resumed, yet more pitilessly. 

Domination was one of his besetting sins. He never saw a helpless orcowering thing without feeling the inclination to set his foot uponit, and the least show of resistance in such, piqued him intodespotism. 

"I was aware that it was not dead when you married a man worth athousand such scoundrels as that fellow in Philadelphia. I believedthat the sentiment was powerful in impelling you to that marriage, and that this irrevocable measure would be an antidote to the evil. It was a wise course, and I commended you for pursuing it. But I amtoo well read in your countenance and moods not to see that there issomething far amiss with you. You have been playing a part fortwenty-four hours, and you have played it wretchedly. Your nervousflutters and laugh, your sudden changes of complexion, and theincoherence of your language, would betray you to the leastpenetrating observer. I caution you to be on your guard lest yourhusband should take just offence at all this. The need ofdissimulation is the evidence that something is radically wrong inyour moral nature, and is derogatory to your lawful partner. I amashamed to remind you of the golden maxim of wedded life--thatwithout perfect and mutual confidence there can be no substantialhappiness. Does Dorrance know of your escapade at the Springs?"

"If you refer to my engagement to Mr. Chilton, I told him of itbefore our marriage. "

"I rejoice to hear it--am pleased at this one proof of good senseand right feeling, " in lofty patronage. "You owed him no less. Youhave, without doubt been informed long since how I obtained the mostimportant proof against that villain?"

"I have not heard Mr. Chilton's name in a year until yesterday, "said Mabel, the scarlet spots ceasing to flicker, and her voice hardas was his own. 

Unable to interpret her sudden steadiness of demeanor and accent, Winston leaped to the irritating conclusion that she was sullen, andmeditated a defiant retreat from this untimely usurpation of hisolden authority. 

"It was injudicious--miserably ill-judged in Dorrance not toacquaint you with this. I have always feared lest his indulgencemight not be the most salutary method of repressing your self-willand pride of opinion. You, more than any other woman I know, requirethe tight rein of vigilant discipline. I intimated as much toDorrance when he asked my consent to your engagement. But this ishis lookout, not mine. What I began to say was that, in MY opinion, he would have acted more sensibly had he not encouraged yoursqueamish repugnance to talking of your early fault and itsmortifying consequences. "

"Fortunately for me, my husband is a man of feeling and delicacy!"Mabel was goaded to boast. "I said to him, the evening of ourbetrothal, that the subject you have chosen to revive to-night waspainful to me, and he has respected the reluctance you condemn. "

"He would have overcome it more quickly and thoroughly had heinformed you that he had had the honor of horse-whipping yourci-devant betrothed!" sneered Winston, with white dinted nostrils. "That he was the author of the letter, a portion of which I copiedfor your perusal, when I announced the dissolution of yourprovisional engagement--the main agent, in effect, of the rupture, since but for him I should have had much difficulty in proving whatI had believed from the beginning--that the rascal ought to be shotfor presuming to think of you in any other light than as the merestacquaintance. And he should never have been that, had I been withyou that unlucky summer. "

"We have been over that ground so often, Winston, that both of usshould be tolerably familiar with it, " rejoined Mabel, decidedly. "Iprefer that, instead of reviewing the circumstances of what you termmy 'early fault, ' you should show me the evidence of your singularassertion respecting Mr. Dorrance's agency in a matter in which hecould not at that time have had the slightest personal interest. Or, shall I ask him? It is an enigma to me. "

Without other answer than a contemptuous laugh, Winston left theroom, unnoticed by the musicians. But before she could form aconjecture as to the meaning of his abrupt movement, he was backwith a letter in his hand. 

"Documentary testimony!" he said, shortly, passing it to her. "Ishould have forwarded it entire, instead of transcribing an extract, but for Clara's fear lest yon should be led thereby to dislike herbrother before you had ever seen him. I take it there is no dangerof prejudicing you against him now!"

The letter was from Herbert Dorrance, and began thus:

"Mr. Aylett:

"Dear Sir, --Your favor of the 15th, enclosed in one from my sister, reached me this morning. "

Then followed the expose of Frederic Chilton's misdeeds, whichWinston had transferred to his own epistle to Mabel, as the leadingargument in his refusal to sanction her engagement. 

Mabel read it through without flinching; then turned over to thefirst page and put her finger upon a paragraph. 

"Who was the lady here mentioned?"

Mr. Aylett shrugged his fine shoulders. 

"I have never interested myself to inquire. Beyond the statement ofyour friend's rascality, the story was nothing to me. "

"Herbert!"

The ringing call--sharp and clear--checked the pianists in themiddle of a bar. 

"Step here a moment, if you please!"

The novelty of the imperative tone and the glitter of his wife'seyes moved Mr. Dorrance to more prompt compliance than he would haveadjudged to be dignified and husbandly in the case of another man. 

Mabel held out the letter at his approach, still pointing to thepassage she had asked her brother to explain. 

"To whom does this refer? Who was the relative whose husband was anaval officer?"

Herbert Dorrance's constitutional phlegm was a valuable ally in thevery contracted quarters into which this question drove him, but hissister was his deliverer. Affecting forgetfulness of the letter andits contents, he glanced down one page, Mrs. Aylett leaning upon hisarm, and reading with him. 

"I don't think you need mind telling the name, here and at this lateday, Herbert, " she said, seriously and slowly, "provided Mabel willnever repeat the story when it can do harm. Have you never heard anyof us speak of poor Ellen Lester, my mother's niece, who diedseveral years before your marriage?" accosting her sister-in-law, with a face so devoid of aught resembling cowardly or guilty fears, that Mabel's brain, tried and shaken, tottered into disbelief at herown wild surmises. 

"Not that I remember!"

"Is that so? Yet it might easily have been. She accompanied herhusband upon his last voyage, and the ship was never heard of again. Her parents are dead, too, so there are few to cherish her memory. She was a school-fellow of mine, and Herbert loved her as a sister. "

Mabel was gazing fixedly at her husband's stolid countenance andaverted eyes, and made no rejoinder until the silent intensity ofher regards compelled him to look up. Reading distrust and alarm inthese, he shook off his sister's warning hold. 

"When you wish to catechise me upon family matters, Mabel, it is mywish that you should do it in private, " he said, roughly. "Then youshall learn all that it concerns you to know. There are subjectsinto which only prurient curiosity cares to pry. "

"I beg your pardon!" answered Mabel, quietly. "I have but to say, inself-defence, that I did not ask to see the letter. "

"It is a matter of profound indifference to me whether you did ornot, " was the reply. "For aught that I know or cared, you may haveread it a year and a half ago. I retract nothing that is set downthere. Clara, shall we go on with our music?"

Glancing around stealthily at the finale of the (sic) he saw thatMabel's chair was vacant, and Mr. Aylett was reading composedlybeneath the lamp. 

Clara made the same discovery at the same moment, and came forwardlaughing to her husband. 

"What had you been saying to our dear, excitable Mabel, thatchallenged the introduction of that unfortunate document?"

"Told her of Frederic Chilton's intended marriage!" curtly, andwithout laying aside his volume. 

"Preposterous!"

"I agree with you--but it is the truth. "

Herbert stood apart glowing at the fire. 

"You must have approached the subject unskilfully, " urged thepeacemaker. "These old sores are oest left alone. "

"It is best for married woman to have none, " retorted Winston, doggedly. 

"She does not persist in doubting his unworthiness, does she?"queried the wife, aside, but not so cautiously that her brother didnot hear her. 

He wheeled about suddenly. 

"She SHALL believe it, or call me a liar to my face!" he uttered, angrily. "I will put a stop to this sentimental folly!"

"You are late in beginning your reforms, " observed Mr. Aylett, dryly. 

"You are a less sensible man than I give you credit for being, ifyou ever begin!" interposed his sister. 

"Leave Mabel to herself until she recovers from the shock--if it beone--of this intelligence. The surest means of keeping alive a dyingcoal is to stir and blow upon it. And even we"--lifting the heavylocks of her husband's hair in playful dalliance--"even we aremortal. We have had our peccadilloes and our repentances, and havenow our little concealments of affairs that would interest nobodybut ourselves. Do you hear what I am saying, Herbert! Leave off yourhigh tragedy airs and attend to reason, as expressed in yoursister's advice. While your wife is my invalid guest, I will nothave her subjected to any inquisitorial process. There is a time foreverything under the sun, saith the preacher. This is the season fortender forbearance, and if need be, of forgiveness. "

Herbert blessed her humane tolerance in his alarmed heart, whenMabel awoke from her troubled slumbers at midnight, in extreme pain, that culminated before dawn, in convulsions. 

Two physicians were hastily summoned, and when Mrs. Sutton arrivedabout noon, she met Phillis outside the door of the sick-chamber, carrying a lifeless infant in her arms, and weeping bitterly. 

This was the end of the months of hopeful longing and gladanticipation which were Heaven's messengers of healing and comfortto the sick and lonely heart. The cunningly-fashioned robes werenever to have a wearer, the clasping arms to remain still empty. Ohwondrous mystery--past finding out--of the human soul! Had the lungsonce heaved with breath, the heart given one throb; the eyes caughtone beam of Heaven's light ere they were sealed fast in eternaldarkness, she, who travailed with the infant through theinexpressible agony of birth, would have been written a mother amongwomen; have had the right accorded her, without the cavil offormalist or the disputations of science, to claim the preciousthing as her own still--a living baby-spirit that had fluttered backto the bosom of the Almighty Father, after alighting, for onepainful moment, upon the confines of the lower world. As it was, custom ordained that there should be no mourning for what had neverreally been. Anguish, hope, and the patient love at which we do notscoff when the mother-bird broods over the eggs that may neverhatch--these were to be no more named or remembered. In silence andwithout sympathy she must endure her disappointment. The tenderestwoman about whose knees cluster living children, and who has sowedin tears the blessed seed, that in the resurrection-morn shall begathered in beauteous sheaves of richest recompense--would smile inpitying contempt over the tiny headstone which should belettered--"Born Dead. "

All this and much more Mabel was to learn with the return of healthand reason, but she lay now, like one who had passed for herself thenarrow sea that separates the Now from the Hereafter; her featureschiselled into the unmoving outlines of a waxen image, only a feebleflutter of breath and pulse telling that this was lethargy, notdeath. They watched her all night, Mrs. Sutton on one side andPhillis on the other, the family physician stealing in withslippered tread from hour to hour, to note with his sensitive touchif the few poor drops of vital blood yet trickled from veins toheart, always with the same directions, "Give her the stimulantwhile she can swallow it. It is the only hope of saving her. "

Armed with this, the two devoted women fought the Destroyer, prayinginaudibly, while they wrought, for the life of the child they hadreared to her sorrowful womanhood. 

"HE'S asleep, and so is SHE!" whispered Phillis, once, pointingalternately to the adjoining room where Herbert Dorrance awaited theissue of this critical stage of his wife's illness, and to Mrs. Aylett's chamber across the hall. "The Lord forgive 'em both! Itwon't be they two that will shed many tears if so be she doesn't seethe light of another day--the murdered lamb! They tormented the lifeout of her. I passed by her room last night before bed-time, andheard her a-sobbin' and talkin' to herself, and walkin' up and downthe floor, and THEY a-bangin' away on the pyano down in the parlor!"

The faithful creature's prejudice wronged one of the hated pair. Mrs. Aylett's slumbers upon her downy couch might be none the lessserene for her sister-in-law's danger, but Herbert's was the sleepof exhaustion, not callousness. He had been up all the previousnight, and racked by the wildest anxiety throughout the interveningday, and to compass this vigil was beyond his physical powers. Mabelwould not miss him, and he could do nothing for her--would only bein the way, being totally unpractised in the art of nursing, hereasoned; and there was no telling what new draught upon hisstrength the morrow might bring. He would just lie down for an hour;then he would be fresh for whatever service might be required ofhim. With this prudent resolve, he threw himself along the bed inthe spare-room, and was oblivious of everything sublunary untilsunrise. 

"If there should be any change, call me!" Mrs. Aylett had enjoined, plaintively. "Winston will not hear of my sitting up, but I shallnot close my eyes all night, so do not hesitate to disturb me, if Ican be of any use whatever. "

Which, it is idle to remark, was the last thing either of the nursesthought of doing. If their darling were, in truth, dying, they werethe fittest persons to receive her latest sigh; for had they notbeen present at her birth, and did not her mother go to glory fromtheir supporting arms?

There was a change, and not a favorable one, before daybreak. Thepatient, from mutterings and restless starts, passed into violentdelirium, laughing, crying, and singing in a style so opposed to theprescribed diagnosis of her case, as to lash the provincial doctorto his wits' end, and extinguish in Aunt Rachel's sanguine heart thefaint hope to which she had clung until now. Herbert, awakenedfinally by the turbulent sounds from the room he had been told mustbe kept perfectly quiet, jumped up, and showed himself, withdisordered hair and blinking eyes, in the door of communication, just as Mabel struggled to rise, and pleaded weepingly with thosewho held her down that they would restore her child to her. 

"I had her in my arms not a moment ago!" she insisted. "See! theprint of her little head is here on my breast! You have taken heraway among you! I saw it all--those who ordered that it should bedone and those who did it, when I was too weak to hold her, or tokeep them back!"

And passing from the height of furious invective to deadly andearnest calm, she told them off upon her fingers. 

"Clara Aylett! Rosa Tazewell! Winston Aylett! (he married ClaraLouise Dorrance, you know!) Herbert Dorrance! JULIUS LENNOX!"

The household was astir by this time, and Mrs. Aylett entered fromthe hall as her brother did from his bedroom. There was but onespectator who was sufficiently composed to note and marvel at thescared look exchanged by the two at the sound of the last name. Thiswas Mr. Aylett, who, from his position behind his wife, had anexcellent view of all the actors in the exciting tableau before shefell back, swooning, in his arms. 

He was alone with her in their chamber when she revived, and theearliest effort of her restored consciousness was to seize both hishands in hers, and scan his face searchingly--it would seemagonizingly--until his fond smile dispelled the unspoken dread. 

"Ah!" she murmured, hiding her face upon his bosom, "she is stillalive, then! I thought--I thought"--a mighty sob--"Don't despiseyour weak, silly wife, darling! but it was very terrible! I believedit was the last struggle, and was appalled at the sight. And my poorHerbert! he was frightfully overcome. Did you notice him? Will yousend him to me, dear? I can soothe him better than any oneelse--prepare him for what is, I fear, inevitable. I shall not giveway again to my terrors. "

The brother and sister were still together when word was brought, two hours later that Mabel had fallen into a profound sleep--a goodomen, the doctor said. 

"Thank Heaven!" ejaculated Herbert, fervently, his eyes softeninguntil he turned away to conceal his emotion. 

He was haggard with solicitude, while Mrs. Aylett's healthful bloombetokened slight interest in the termination of the seizure, aglance at which had thrown her into a faint. Nor did she echo thethanksgiving. She waited until the messenger had gone, and continuedthe conversation her entrance had interrupted. 

"I incline to the belief that she caught the name, in some manner, on Christmas before last. HE was delirious, too, and although doctorand nurse reported that he did not speak articulately after he wasbrought in, she may have heard more than they. From what has beentold me, I gather that she was in the room with him alone, whileMrs. Sutton was down-stairs looking for Dr. Ritchie. In a lucidinterval he may have given his name--possibly some particulars ofhis history. Unless--are you positive there has been no indiscretionon your part, or that others may have talked negligently to her, because she was a member of the family?"

"There are topics of which we--your mother, sister, andbrothers--never speak, even to one another. You may trust us thatfar, " rejoined Herbert, emphatically. "Nor do I see what we can do, except wait for other proof that Mabel really knows anything beyonda name she has picked up at random and never, to my knowledge, repeated, save in her ravings. Should she recover, the test can beeasily applied, and we can judge then, how to handle the dilemma. "

"Should she recover!" He said the words reluctantly, as loth toexpress the doubt. 

His sister's lips twitched nervously into a sinister smile. It wasas if she would have whispered, had she dared, "Heaven forbid!"

"You have chosen a toilsome and a perilous path, Clara, " he resumed, by and by. "I do not wonder that you are, with all your courage andsanguine trust in your own powers, sometimes disquieted, and oftenweary. "

"Who says that I am ever weary? And did you ever know me to disquietmyself in vain?" with the low, musical ripple of laughter thatbelonged to her sunniest mood. "Had I been born in the classic age, I should have been a devout disciple of Epicurus. Don't imagine thatmy success has not, thus far, amply repaid me for my toil andingenuity. Having lived upon excitement all my days, I should starvewithout it. Pleasure, like safety, is the dearer for being pluckedfrom that evergreen nettle, Danger!"

CHAPTER XV. 

THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 

THE snows of ten winters had powdered the nameless stranger's gravein the servant's burial-ground of the Ridgeley plantation. For nineyears the wallet taken from his person had lain unopened in a hiddendrawer of Mabel Dorrance's escritoire, and the half-guessed secretbeen hidden in her breast. Mammy Phillis had followed her mistressto the tomb, six months after her removal from her beloved cottageto the despised "quarters. " She never held up her head from the dayof her degradation, died from a broken heart, murmured those whobest knew her--of a "fit of spleen, " said Mrs. Aylett, in coolreprehension of her unmannerly vassal. 

Mabel had guarded the mystery well. Her husband examinedher--covertly, as he thought; awkwardly, according to her ideas--withregard to the vagaries of her delirium, and was foiled by the gravesimplicity of her manner and replies. 

"All she knows or remembers is substantially this, " Herbert jotteddown in his notes for his sister's perusal: "she has associated insome way--she cannot tell exactly how or why--the name with thetramp who died in the garret. She is not sure that it was hisdesignation. Thinks it was not, or that, if used by him, it was analias. Has an impression that it was marked upon his clothing, orupon a paper found in his pocket. Showed no agitation and littleinterest in the subject, except when she inquired if I saw thestranger at all--living or dead. Was glad I could reply truly, 'No. ' Answer seemed to gratify her, which you may consider adisagreeable augury. Am convinced that her illness resulted fromnatural and unavoidable causes--that neither F---C---norJ----L---had any connection with it. It will be months before mindand body recover their tone. "

"Lawyerly! ergo, absurd and unsatisfactory!" pronounced the reader, to whom the foregoing leaf had been committed on the morning of herbrother's departure with his slowly-convalescing wife for theirAlbany home. "But until the nettle pricks more nearly, I shallcontinue to enjoy my roses. "

They had blossomed thickly about her path during this decade. Hermatronly beauty was the wonder and praise of the community. Thechanging seasons that had bleached the locks upon her husband'stemples and heightened his forehead had spared the bronzed chestnutof her luxuriant tresses. Her figure was larger and fuller, butgraceful, and more queenly than of yore--if that could be. Therewas not an untuneful inflection in her voice, or a furrow betweenher brows. Under her careful management the homestead wore everyyear an air of increased elegance. No other furniture for many mileson both sides of the river could compare with hers; no otherservants were so well-trained, no grounds so beautifully ornamentedand trimly kept. 

"But for all that Ridgeley is a lonely, desolate place to me, " saidMrs. Sutton, one early spring morning to her niece and crony, Mrs. William Sutton. "A house without children is worse than a lastyear's bird's nest. It is a riddle to me how Clara Aylett contrivesto occupy her time. "

"She should have some of these socks to darn, if it hangs upon herhands, " replied Mrs. William, humorously, running her five fingersthrough the toe of one she had just picked up from the great willowbasket set between the two upon the porch-floor. 

"The Lord isn't very apt to make mothers out of that sort ofmaterial, " said the elder lady. "Nor fathers out of Winston Ayletts. They are so wrapped up in their self-consequence as to have nothought for others. "

"Yet they say Mr. Aylett regrets that he has no heir. It is a greatpity Mabel lost her only child as she did. The family will becomeextinct in another generation. It is such a noble estate, too!"

"Large families were never the rule among the Ayletts, " respondedAunt Rachel. "But I did hope my dear Mabel would be an exception tothe rest in this respect. She would adopt a little girl, but herhusband will not consent. Those Dorrances are a cold-hearted race. He, too, is heaping up riches, without knowing who shall gatherthem. Heigh-ho!"

Her darning-needle quilted the yawning heel of Tommy Sutton's sockwith precision and celerity, and she ruminated silently upon thevicissitudes and failures of mortal life until she was interruptedby Mrs. William's exclamation:

"There is Mrs. Tazewell's carriage at the gate, and the driver has aletter in his hand. I hope the old lady is not worse!"

Aunt Rachel met the man at the steps, with neighborly anxiety. 

"How is your mistress, Jack?"

"'Bout the same, ma'am. But Miss Rosa--she came last night veryunexpected, and it kinder worsted Mistis to see her so poorly. Thisnote is from Miss Rosa, ma'am, and I am to take back an answer. "

Mrs. Sutton read it standing in the porch--the scented leaflet thathad a look of the writer all over it, from the scarlet monogram atthe top of the sheet and upon the envelope, to the flourish of thesignature--"Rosa T. C. "--the curl of the C carried around the restlike a medallion frame:

"DEAR, GOOD AUNT RACHEL, --I have come to Old Virginia to try andshake off an uncomfortable cough which has haunted me all winter. The Northern quacks can do nothing for me. One ray of this delicioussunshine is worth all their nostrums. I was not prepared to findmamma helpless, or I should not have descended upon her sounceremoniously. Being here, I cannot retreat in good order or withsafety to my health, nor without wounding her. Frederic must returnto Philadelphia next week, by which time I hope to be quiteinvigorated. Now for my audacious proposal. Can you come over andtell me how to get well in the quickest and least troublesome way?Dear Auntie! you loved me once. When you see what a poor, spiritlessshadow I have grown--or lessened--to be, you will care a little bitfor me again, for the sake of lang syne. "

Mrs. Sutton wiped her spectacles and gave the note to her niece. 

"There is but one thing for me to do, you see, my dear. Jack! Ishall be ready in twenty minutes. "

If the line of duty wavered before her sight during the three-miledrive, it lay straight and distinct ahead of her when she stood inRosa's chamber. 

"My child!" she ejaculated, upon the threshold "you did not tell methat you were confined to your bed!"

"I ought not to be!"

The rebellious pout and tone were Rosa's, as were also the blackeyes--unnaturally large and bright though they were--but the prettylips were wan, and strained by lines of pain; the pomegranate flushwas no longer variable, and was nestled in hollows, and the handswere wasted to translucency. 

"I am quite strong enough to be up, and would be, if my tyrannicaldoctors and their tractable tool, my lord and master, had notdecreed that I shall lie here until midday, if I am very obedient;eat my meals; take their poisonous medicines, and abstain fromcoughing. If I offend in any of these particulars I am not to riseuntil three o'clock--when they are in an especially glum humor--notat all that day. But now you are here, we shall combat themvalorously. Dear Auntie!" putting the thin arms about the old lady'splump neck, and laughing through a spring rain of tears, "how goodand safe it is to be with you again! And you are the same kind, lovely darling! no older by a day--no uglier by a solitary wrinkle!I couldn't sleep last night, for fearing you would not come to me!"

"You should not have doubted it, dear!" said the motherly voice, blithe as affectionate, while soft, agile fingers undid the tightembrace, and commenced, from the force of habit, to arrange thetumbled bed-clothes. "Wherever I can be of most use is the place inwhich I wish to be. "

"I know you have always lived for others, " answered Rosa, with aninvoluntary sigh, a shadow glooming her eyes. 

"For whom else should I live and work?" laughed Mrs. Sutton, in hercheerful, guileless fashion. "My personal wants are few and easilysupplied, and I like to be busy. I account it a privilege to be ableto fuss about my friends when they are ailing. "

By way of doing as she liked, she attacked the disorderly room. Rosa's three trunks stood in a row against the wall--all of themopen--the tray of the largest lying beside it upon the carpet, thelid of this thrown back and the contents in utter confusion; laceshanging over the sides and trailing upon the floor. A casket ofmedicines was uppermost in the next trunk, crushing a confusedmedley of collars, ribbons, gloves, and handkerchiefs. Adressing-gown lay upon the seat of one chair, a skirt over the backof another; boots and slippers peeped from the valance of theantique bedstead; there was a formidable array of bottles uponmantel and bureau--conspicuous among them cod-liver oil, cologne, and laudanum--incongruous appendages to the various appliances ofthe toilette scattered between them. 

Mrs. Sutton understood it all--the hurry and agitation of theunlooked-for arrival; the faintness and prostration of theconsumptive; the restless night, and the well-meant but inefficientministrations of negroes in an establishment where the mistress hadbeen feeble for years, and was now chained to her room and chair byparalysis. 

"And Rosa was always an indolent flyabout in health; accustomed tohave a score of servants at her heels to pick up whatever shedropped or threw aside, " she said to herself. "My Mabel was a pinkof neatness and order compared with her. Dear me! here is a bottleof oil, cracked, and an immense grease-spot in the front breadth ofa splendid silk dress! I hope these things do not annoy her as theywould me!"

Whether the universal disarray made Rosa uncomfortable or not, sheenjoyed the aspect of the tidy apartment, when her nurse brought hernoiseless labors to a close by exchanging her night-gown for aflannel wrapper; putting clean linen upon her and the bed; combingthe tangled hair and washing her hands, wrists, and face in tepidwater, interfused with cologne. 

"It prevents a sick person from taking cold when bathed, andfreshens her up wonderfully, I think, " was her explanation of thefragrant preparation. 

"YOU freshen me more than all things else combined!" said Rosa, gratefully. "Ah, auntie! how often I have thought of, and wished foryou this tedious and dismal winter! I used to spend entire weeks inbed, attended by a horrid hired nurse, who took snuff anddrank--ugh! and snubbed and terrified me whenever I--as shedescribed it--'took a notion into my head;' that is, when I askedfor something she thought was too troublesome for her ladyship toprepare, or wanted Fred to stay all night in my room, or sit by mein the evening, and pet me. She 'couldn't bear to have men around, cluttering up everything!' she would growl the instant his back wasturned, with a deal more of the same talk, until I was afraid to askhim to take a seat the next time he came in. He was continuallybringing home baskets of fruit, and game, and bouquets for me. Shelet me have the flowers, but she ate nine-tenths of the nice thingsherself, I never suspecting her, and he was too delicate to ask if Ienjoyed his presents. At length he surprised her in the act ofdevouring a bunch of hot-house grapes, for which he had paid almosttheir weight in gold, and then all came to light, and he sent heroff in a hurry. Poor Fred, there were great tears in his eyes whenhe learned what persecution I had undergone, rather than vex him bycomplaints. "

"It would have been better had you told him sooner, dear! It wouldhave spared you and him much suffering. "

"I knew how engrossed he was by his business, and how ignorant hewas of household or medical matters, and I saved him all the botherI could. I have tried, in some things and some times, to be a goodwife, Aunt Rachel! But often I have failed, O, how egregiously!and"--beginning to weep--"the thought pierces my heart by day and bynight. What if I never have an opportunity of doing any better, ofcovering up the traces of my footsteps?"

Mrs. Sutton patted the wasted hand with her cool one, but essayed noother soothing. 

"Where is your husband now? I understood from your note that he waswith you. "

"He rode over to Dr. Ritchie's this morning, directly he had givenme my breakfast. He thinks highly of his skill, and he would not becontented without bringing him to see me. I really believe he isanxious I should get well! Strange--isn't it? when I am such aburden upon his mind and hands. "

Aunt Rachel smiled. 

"Not at all strange, you ridiculous child! Two of the mostdearly-loved wives I ever knew were invalids, and bedridden, not forweeks only, but for years. You can best show your gratitude for hisaffection and kindness by getting better rapidly while he is here, that he may leave you with a lighter heart. "

"He is kind! too kind!" murmured Rosa, composing herself among thecushions, as if to sleep. 

She was quiet so long that Mrs. Button had leisure for somereflections relating to her own personal action in the somewhatembarrassing position she occupied. She had never seen FredericChrlton from the day he left Ridgeley as Mabel's betrothed. Hisvisits to the neighborhood since his marriage had been few andbrief, and she had studied to avoid him whenever she happened to bewith the William Suttons during one of these. He might have guessedher design, or unwittingly favored it on his own account. Themeeting would not be more pleasant to him than to her. But why hadhe allowed his wife to send for her? The alteration in him mustindeed be great, if he could, without a conflict with resentful andpainful memories, bow his pride to sue for the services of arelative of the Ayletts, and formerly one of their household, evenin such a cause as that which now commanded her sympathies. 

At this point of her cogitation she became aware that Rosa's eyeswere wide open, and staring at her with a whimsical blending ofcuriosity, melancholy, and gratification. 

"Aunt Rachel!" she said, bluntly, "you are a very good woman! thebest and most forgiving human being I ever heard of. I should notfeel one particle of surprise to see you float up gently through theroof, at any minute--cap, spectacles, and all--translated to thesociety of your sister angels--and no questions asked by St. Peterat the gate of Paradise!"

"My love!"

Well as she knew her erratic disposition and wild style of speech, Mrs. Sutton moved her hand toward the patient's pulse. 

"I am not raving! I speak the words of truth and soberness--very sadsoberness, too! Believing as you do that Frederic was once the causeof much sorrow to you and to one you loved, and having no reason tocare one iota for me, but rather to distrust me, you neverthelessobey my call upon you for service, as if I had every right to makeit. And when here, you treat me just as you would Mabel, were hersituation as deplorable, her need equal to mine. "

"Why shouldn't I?" questioned Mrs. Sutton, simply. "I have no groundfor a quarrel with you. And if I had--well, the truth is, my dear, Ihave a poor memory for such things!"

Rosa caught at the scarcely perceptible emphasis upon the "YOU, " anddisregarded the remainder of the remark. 

"You cannot yet acquit Frederic of wrong-doing! Indeed, Mrs. Sutton, he has been foully wronged among you. It is not because he is myhusband that I say this. Mabel's name has never passed his lips---nor mine in his hearing, since I became his wife. And every one ofthe family has been equally guarded when he was by. I doubt, sometimes, if he has ever heard whom she married or where shelives--so carefully has he shunned every reference to her or any ofthe Ridgeley people. During the nine years we have lived together, he has given me no cause to suspect that he ever thinks of her, orlaments the broken engagement. If I have made myself wretched byimagining the contrary, it was my fault, not his--my foolish, wickedjealousy. I would scorn to imply a doubt of his integrity, byreminding him of the charges proferred against him by WinstonAylett, and believed by his sister--much less ask him to contradictthem. I never put any faith in them from the outset. It comforts meto recollect that my confidence in him stood fast when everybodyelse distrusted him--my noble, slandered darling! But my declarationof his innocence is founded upon his blameless life and uprightprinciples. No one could be with him as I have been, and doubt him. He is a perfect man--if there was ever a sinlessmortal--great-hearted, gentle, and sincere. Do not I know this? HaveI not proved him to the utmost?"

Her rapid, impassioned declamation was ended by a copious flood ofgrief that provoked a frightful fit of coughing. When this wassubdued she was weaker than a year-old infant, and lay betweenstupor and dreaming for so long a time, that Mrs. Sutton becamealarmed. 

There must be no repetition of this scene. She most ward off similarmishaps by whatever measures she could force or cajole herconscience into adopting. Rosa's state was more precarious than heraccount had led her friend to believe, or than the nurse'sexperienced eye had seen at their meeting. The main hope of herrecovery was in the warmer climate and assiduous attendance. Aboveall, she should not be allowed to exhaust herself by talking, orhysterical paroxysms. She had no more self-control than a child, andshe must be treated as such. Mrs. Sutton's jesuitical resolve was tohumor her by every imaginable device, even to feigned friendship forFrederic Chilton. 

Fortified by this resolution, she heard, without any show of prideor trepidation, the clatter of horses' hoofs in the yard; the soundof voices below stairs, as Mr. Chilton ushered the physician intothe parlor, and the light, careful tread with which he mounted tohis wife's apartment. His momentary pause at the entrance, andsurprised look at beholding the other tenant of the chamber, werethe best passport to her indulgence he could have desired. It wasclear to her instantly that poor Rosa's passion for manoeuvring hadsurvived the wreck of health and prostration of spirits. She hadnever chosen the straight path if she could find a crooked or aby-road, and her project for obtaining Mrs. Sutton's services andcompany had been put into execution, without consultation with herhusband. However reprehensible this might be in the abstract, it wasnot in the kind old soul to betray her, as she advanced, placidlyand civilly, to reassure the startled man. 

"How are you, Mr. Chilton? You hardly expected to meet me here, Isuppose? But I am a near neighbor of Mrs. Tazewell now, and hearingthat Rosa was sick, I came over to see if I could do anything forher, knowing how infirm her mother is. "

"You are very kind!" He grasped her hand more tightly than heintended, or was conscious of. "We were ignorant ourselves of Mrs. Tazewell's true condition. Mrs. Chilton's sisters have forwardedmore encouraging reports to her of her mother's illness than theywould have been warranted in doing by anything except the fear thata faithful account would operate injuriously upon the daughter'shealth. I should have chosen some other home for my wife, had Iknown the actual state of affairs here. Change of scene and climatewas imperatively demanded. "

He spoke low and rapidly--hardly above his breath; but the blackeyes, unclosing, flashed upon him. 

"So you have come back!" said Rosa's weak voice. "You stayed away aneternity!"

Her coquettish displeasure and the asperity of her accent contrastedso oddly with her vehemently expressed attachment for her husbandand extolment of his virtues, that Mrs. Sutton regarded her inspeechless amazement. She submitted to his kiss, without returningit--even raising her hand pettishly as to repel further endearments. "I should have died of the blue devils if Aunt Rachel hadn't, by themerest accident, heard that I was ailing, and driven over, like theGood Samaritan she is, to take pity upon me in my destitution; topour oil--not cod-liver--into my wounds, and wine into my mouth. Sheis better than all the men-doctors that were ever created; so ifyou have brought your bearded Esculapius home with you, you may tellhim, with my compliments, that I won't see him yet awhile. He was anold beau of mine, and I hope I have too much respect for what I usedto be, to let him get a glimpse of me until Dr. Sutton has set me upin better flesh and looks. She brought me some enchanting jelly--oneof her magical preparations for the amelioration of human misery, and I am to have a bowl of her unparalleled chicken-broth fordinner. I wish dinner-time were come! the very thought makes meravenous. I am to do nothing for a week, but eat, drink, and sleep, at the end of which period I shall be dismissed as thoroughly cured. So, Mr. Chilton, you can go back to your beloved clients wheneveryou please!"

To Mrs. Sutton's apprehension this was an infelicitous introductionof herself to the husband's toleration. Certainly, she did not knowmany men who would have parried the thrusts at themselves with thedexterity he manifested, and acknowledged her merits and kindlyoffices willingly and gracefully. He did not apologize for hisprotracted absence, nor insist upon conveying his physician to thesick-chamber; but he chatted for five minutes or thereabouts uponsuch topics as he knew would entertain the captious invalid, andfinally arose from the bed-side, where he had been sitting, fondlingher hot hands, with a good-humored laugh. 

"But all the while I am enjoying myself here, the hirsute Galenaforesaid is munching the invisible salad of the solitary in theparlor! I am to eject him incontinently, am I? My conscience willnot let me withhold the admission, when I do this, that my wife'sjudgment in the matter of medical attendants is vastly superior tomine. While Mrs. Sutton is so good as to remain with you, you areright in thinking that you have need of no other physician. "

Aunt Rachel would have entered a disclaimer, but Rosa spoke beforeshe could open her mouth. 

"I didn't say that, Frederic! There was never such another impatientand inconsiderate creature upon the globe as yourself. It would beunpardonably rude in us to send the man away, if he is a charlatan, without letting him see me. Have him up, by all means, and let ushear what priggish nonsense he has to say. He will feel the easierwhen it is done. "

Dr. Ritchie's private report to Mrs. Sutton, who accompanied him totne lower floor, under color of seeing that he was served withluncheon, was discouraging. The disease had made fearful inroadsupon a constitution that had never been robust, and the nervousexcitability of the patient was likely to accelerate her decline. She might linger for several months. It would not surprise him tohear that she had died within twelve hours after his visit. It wasbut fair and professional he added, that he should, through Mrs. Sutton, advise Mr. Chilton of her state, although, unless he weremistaken, he had already anticipated his verdict. 

This Mrs. Sutton found was the case, when she essayed that eveningto insure him against the awful shock of his wife's unexpecteddissolution. 

"She has never been entirely well since the death of our secondchild, a year ago, " he said. "The little one was buried on a verystormy day, and the mother would not be dissuaded from going to thecemetery. The severe cold, acting upon a system enfeebled by grief, induced an attack of pneumonia. Dr. Ritchie but coincides with everyother physician I have consulted. "

"It is a pity you are obliged to leave her so soon, " observed thesympathizing nurse. "Although she may be more comfortable a weekhence than she is now. "

"A week! I had no intention of returning in less than a month'stime. I made all my arrangements to that effect before leaving home. Rosa's reference to my desire to go back to my clients was sheerbadinage"--smiling mournfully. "You have heard her talk oftenenough to understand how little of earnest there is in theraillery. " More insincerity! For, contradictory as it may appear, Mrs. Sutton felt constrained to believe his unsupported word, inopposition to his wife's written assertion that he designed toreturn to his practice the ensuing week. 

"She thought I would be more apt to come if I imagined that he wouldsoon be gone!" was her grieved reflection. "If she could beguile mehither by this assurance, she trusted to her coaxings and mycompassion to retain me. O Rosa! Rosa! cannot even the honest hourteach you to be truthful?"

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE HONEST HOUR. 

The shadow of death drew on apace to the sight of all, save theconsumptive, and her semi-imbecile mother. These seemed alike blindto the fatal symptoms that were more strongly defined with everypassing day. The paralytic sat in her wheeled chair, in the Marchsunshine, at the window of her chamber, and talked droningly ofother times and paltry pleasures to that one of her daughters orgrand-children whose turn it was to minister to her comfort andamusement, and insisted upon having all the neighborhood newsrepeated in her dull ear with wearisome--to thenarrator--amplifications and reiterations, shaking with childishlaughter at the humorous passages, and whimpering at the pathetic. Rosa cheated time of heaviness by unceasing demands upon herattendants for service and diversion. Unable to sleep, except atlong intervals, in snatches of fitful dozing, she had a horror ofbeing alone for an instant, from dusk until dawn; was ingenious incontrivances to surprise an unwary watcher nodding upon her post;plenteous and plaintive in lamentations, if the device succeeded. Fifty times a night her pillows must be shaken, her drink, food, ormedicine given, and after each of these offices had been performed, occurred the petition:

"Now--sit where I can see you whenever I open my eyes! It drives mecrazy to imagine for a moment that I am by myself. I want to be sureall the while that some living human being is near at hand. I havesuch frightful dreams! I awake always with the impression that I amdrowning or suffocating, or floating away into a sea of darknessalone!"

With the light of day, her spirits revived, and her hopes of speedyrecovery. 

"You need not grudge waiting upon me now, for I shall be up andabout shortly--well and spry as the best of you!" she would say. "And while I am playing invalid, I mean to have my quantum ofattention. I have been avaricious of devotion all my life, and thisis a golden chance that may never happen again. "

Her husband she would not willingly suffer to leave her for aninstant. But for Mrs. Sutton's management and kindly authority, hewould have been condemned to take his meals at her bedside and fromthe same tray with herself. She would be removed from the bed to thelounge by no other arms than his, and at any hour of the twenty-fourhe was liable to be called upon to read, sing, or talk her intocomposure. Variable as ever in mood and fancy, and more capriciousin the exhibition of these, she was fond, sullen, teasing, andmirthful with him as the humor of the moment dictated; sometimesassailing him with reproaches for his indifference and want ofregard for her wishes and tastes, now that she was no longer young, pretty, and sprightly; at others, clinging to him with protestationsof repentance and love, bewailing her waywardness and imploring hisforbearance; then, taking him to task for the slightestinadvertence--the spilling of a drop of her medicine or jarring ofher sofa or bed; anon lauding him to the skies as the most skilfulnurse she had, and enjoining upon all about her to render verbaltestimonial to his irreproachableness as husband and man--oh! it wasa wearisome, oftentimes a revolting duty to listen to and bear withit all--keep in mind though one did that the intolerablerestlessness preluded centuries of dreamless repose. 

Mrs. Sutton could endure everything else better--and she believedthat it was the same with Frederic--than the needless and pueriletrickery to which Rosa resorted to achieve the most trivialpurposes. If she wished that one of her sisters should pass the daywith her, or to sit up for a part of the night, she worked upon herby means of others' intercessions, or broached the subject by covertpassages, the end of which, she flattered herself, was successfullymasked, until her train was ready for explosion. Did she set herfancy upon any particular article of diet, the same tortuous coursewas pursued to present the delicacy in question to the mind of himor her who, she designed, should be the provider. Under her sauciestrattle of fun or perversity lurked some subtle meaning. She hadeither some end to subserve, or wanted to possess herself of somebit of information she could have gained sooner and more easily bydirect inquiry. Cajolery and intrigue had become a second nature, stronger than the original; and it never occurred to her that herwiles, in her mental and bodily decadence, were transparent as theyhad once been artful. 

A discovery, made on the fourth day of her visit, excited Mrs. Sutton's sympathies in behalf of the much enduring husband to apitch it required long and serious pondering upon the wife'sweakness and critical condition to restrain from indignantdemonstration. 

Rosa was sleeping more soundly than usual under the influence of ananodyne, and Frederic, with a whispered apology to his coadjutor, went into the next room, leaving the door ajar. From her seat, Mrs. Sutton had a distinct view of him in an opposite mirror--acircumstance of which she was not aware for several minutes. Happening, then, to look up from her knitting she saw that he waswriting, and half an hour afterward that he was leaning back in hischair, looking at something in the hollow of his hand, a mingling ofsuch love and sadness in his countenance that she felt it would beunlawful prying into his most sacred feelings for her to watch himlonger. He turned his head at the slight rustle she made in removingto another part of the room, and beckoned to her. At her approach, he arose and held out a morocco case, containing the miniature of achild--a bright-eyed, delicate-featured girl of seven or eightsummers--exquisitely painted. 

"You have never seen my little Florence, I think?"

"I have not. She is pretty--and resembles you strongly. "

He did not color or laugh at the unconscious compliment, or seempleased at her praise of his darling. Instead, there crept over hisface a shade of more painful sadness, darkening his eyes andcompressing his lip, as he answered--

"So every one says. She is the dearest child in the world--a sunbeamof gladness in any house--amiable, affectionate, and intelligent. Iwish you would read her last letter to me. She is a bettercorrespondent than many grown people. " Then, smiling, apologetically, "If my commendation seem overstrained, you willexcuse a father's partiality. "

The letter--although the unformed chirography betrayed the writer'sinexperience in pen-practice--was correctly spelled and easy instyle, crowded with loving messages to "dear papa and mamma;"relating anecdotes of school and home life, and while expressive ofher longings for her parents' return, professing willingness to staywhere she was "until mamma should be well enough to come back. "

"I pray every night that God will cure her, and make us all happyagain, " she wrote. "I dreamed one night last week that I saw herdressed for a party, all rosy and funny and laughing, as she used tobe, and that she kissed me, and put her arm around me, and called me'baby Florence' and 'little one, ' in her sweet voice. Wasn't itstrange? I awoke myself crying, I was so happy! I do try to bebrave, and not fret about what cannot be helped, papa, because Ipromised you I would; but sometimes it is right hard work. It isalways easier for a whole day after I get one of your nice, longletters. It is not QUITE as good as having real talk with you, butit is the best treat I can have when you are away. "

Mrs. Sutton wiped her eyes. 

"The dear child!" she said, in the subdued tone habitual to thefrequenters of the sick-room. "No wonder you want to see her! Whydidn't you give her a holiday, and bring her to Virginia with you?"

"I dreaded the effect of a child's high animal spirits andthoughtless bustle upon her mother's health"--the shadow thickeninginto trouble. "The next best thing to having her with me is to knowthat she is kindly and lovingly looked after by my married sister, of whom she is very fond. Florence is merrier, if not alwayshappier, with her young cousins than if she were condemned to therepression and joyless routine of a house where the care of the sickis the most engrossing business to all. "

The more Mrs. Sutton meditated upon this conversation, the moreenigmatical it appeared that the mother never spoke of missing heronly living child--never pined for the sound of her vivacious talkand the sight of her winning ways. Curiosity--her strong love forall children, and a lively interest in Florence and Florence'sfather, the two who assuredly did feel the separation--got theascendency over discretion that night, when Rosa, too nervous tosleep, begged her to talk, "to scare away the horrors that weresitting, a blue-black brood, upon her pillow. "

"Your little daughter would be an endless source of entertainment toyou if she were here, " said downright Aunt Rachel, with no show ofcircumlocution. "I am surprised you do not send for her. "

"Children of that age are a nuisance!" returned Rosa, peevishly. "And of all tiresome ones that I ever saw, Florence is the mosttrying. She doesn't talk after I bid her hold her tongue, but herbig, solemn eyes see and her ears hear all that passes. If there isone thing that pushes me nearer to the verge of distraction thananother it is to have my own words quoted to me when I haveforgotten that I ever uttered them. And she--literal littlebore!--is always pretending to take all that I say in earnest. If Iwere to tell her to go to Guinea, it is my belief she would put onher bonnet, cloak, and gloves, pocket a biscuit for luncheon and astory-book to read by the way, and set out forthwith, asking thefirst decent-looking man she met in the street at what wharf shewould find a vessel bound for Africa. "

Mrs. Sutton was obliged to laugh. 

"She must be a truthful, sincere little thing!"

"Didn't I tell you she is TOO outrageously literal andunimaginative? Just let me give you an example of how she tires andvexes me. One day, about a fortnight before I left home, she set herheart upon spending the whole of Saturday afternoon with me. Herfather objected, for he understands, if he does not sympathize withme, what a trial she is to flesh and spirit. But I was moderatelycomfortable, and my nerves were less unruly than usual, so I said wewould try and get on together. 

"No sooner had he gone than the catechism commenced:

"'Now, mamma, what can I do to amuse you?'

"She talks like a woman of fifty. 

"'What should you propose if I were to leave it to you?' I asked. 

"'I suppose, ' said my Lady Cutshort, 'that it would excite you toomuch to talk, so I had better read aloud. What book do you prefer?'

"I named one--a novel I had not finished--and resigned myself tomartyrdom. She reads fluently--her father says prettily; but thepiping voice rasped my auriculars to the quick, and I soon stoppedthe exhibition. Then we essayed conversation, but our range ofthemes was limited, and a dismal silence succeeded to a shortdialogue. By and by I told her that I was sleepy, hoping she wouldtake the hint and leave my room. 

"'Then, mamma, I will just get my work-basket, and sit here, asstill as a mouse, and prevent all disturbance. '

"With that, she gets out her miniature thimble and scissors, andfalls to work upon a pair of slippers she was embroidering for herfather's birthday present, sitting up, starched and prim as an oldmaid, her lips pursed, and her forehead gravely consequential. Icould not close my eyes without seeing her still, like an undersizednightmare, her hair smooth to the least hair, her dress neat to thesmallest fold, stitching, stitching, the affected, conceitedmarmoset!

"At last I said:

"'Put down your sewing, Florence, and look out of the window at thepeople going by. You must be very tired. '

"'Not in the least, mamma, dear, ' answered Miss Pert. 'I like towork, and there is nothing interesting going on outside. '

"I tossed and sighed, and she was by me in a second. 

"'Darling mamma! my poor, sweet little mother!' in her reed-likechirp; 'can I do nothing to make you feel better?' putting her handsupon my head and stroking my face until my flesh crawled. 

"'Yes, ' said I, out of all patience. 'Take yourself off, and don'tlet me see you again until to-morrow morning! You kill me with yourteasing. '

"And would you believe it? she just put up her sewing in the basketand went directly out, without a tear or a murmur, and when herfather came home he could not prevail upon her, by commands orpersuasions, to accompany him further than the door of my chamber. So he, who won't admit that she can do anything wrong, instead ofwhipping her for her obstinacy, as he ought to have done, guessedshe 'had some reason' for her disobedience which she did not like totell, and interrogated poor, persecuted me. When he had heard myversion of the manner in which we had spent the afternoon, he onlysaid, 'I should have foreseen this. But the child--she is only achild, Rosa!--did her best!' and he looked so mournful that I, knowing he blamed me for his bantling's freak of temper, told himplainly that he cared a thousand times more for this diminutivebundle of hypocrisy than he ever did for me, and that his absurdfavoritism was fast begetting in me a positive dislike for her. Icouldn't endure the sight of the sulky little mischief-maker for aweek after her complaint of barbarity had brought the look into hisface I knew so well. "

"O Rosa, she is your own flesh and blood! and, as her father said, amere baby yet! You said, too, that she refused to assign any causeto him for her singular conduct. "

"She might better have made open outcry than have left upon his mindthe impression that I had banished her cruelly and unnecessarily. But I despair of giving you an idea of how provoking she can be. Sheis a Chilton, through and through, in feature, manner, anddisposition--one of those 'goody' children, you know! a class ofanimals that are simply intolerable to me. She is too precocious andunbaby-like to be in the least interesting. You should have seen mylittle Violet to understand what a constant disappointment Florenceis. She was myself in miniature, and moreover the most witching, prankish, peppery elf that was ever made. The best trait inFlorence's character was her love for her baby-sister. She gave upeverything to her while she was alive, and they told me that shewould not eat, and scarcely slept, for days after her death. Herfather will have it that she is singularly sensitive, and hasmarvellous depths of feeling; but if this be so, it is queer I neverfound it out. Nobody could help adoring Violet--my aweet, lost, beautiful angel!"

The hysterical sobs were pumping up the tears now in hot torrents, and these Mrs. Sutton was fain to assuage by loving arts she wouldnot--but for the danger of allowing them to flow--have been in thetemper to employ, so full was her heart of yearning pity for thehardly-used babe, and displeasure at the mother's weak selfishness. It was easier to forgive and forget Rosa's sins; to lessen, in theretrospect, her worst faults into foibles, than it would have beento overlook the more venal failings of one less mercurial, and whosepersonal fascinations did not equal hers. 

Ere the close of another day, Mrs. Sutton had excused her unnaturalinsensibility to her child's virtues and affection, by representingto herself how fearfully disease had warped judgment and perception;had cast over the enormities she could not palliate the pall ofsolemn remembrance of the truth that death's dark door was alreadyas surely shut between mother and daughter, as if the grave held theformer. A week of chill March rains and wind was disastrous to thepatient, who had seemed to draw her main supplies of strength fromthe sunshine admitted freely to her room, with the spring air, redolent with the delicious odors of the freshly-turned earth, thebudding trees, and early blossoms from the garden heneath herwindows. She shrank and shivered under the ungenial sky, while thedrizzling mist soaked life and animation out of the fragile body. Occasional fits of delirium, increased difficulty of breathing, anda steady decline of the slender remains of vital force, warned herattendants that their care would not be required much longer. Shewas still obstinate in her disbelief of the grave nature of hermalady. The most distant reference to her decease would arouse herto angry refutation of the hinted doubt of her recovery, and excitedher to offer proof of her declaration that she was less ill thanothers supposed; she would summon up a poor counterfeit of energyand mirth, more ghastly than her previous lassitude; deny that shesuffered from any cause, save the unfailing nervous depressionconsequent upon the unfavorable weather. 

Then came a day on which the sun looked forth with augmentedsplendor from his sombrely curtained pavilion; when the nakedbranches of the deciduous trees, the serried lances of theevergreens, and the broad leaves of the tent-like magnolias--thepride of the Tazewell place--shone as from a bath of molten silver. The battered flowers ventured into later and healthier bloom, and arobin, swinging upon the lilac spray nearest Rosa's window, sangblithe greeting to the reinstated spring. 

Rosa heard him--opened her eyes, and smiled. 

"One--maybe the very same--used to sing there every morning when Iwas a girl--used to awake me from my second nap. I could sleep allnight then, and never dream once!"

A messenger had been sent, at daybreak, for her sisters and brother, who resided several miles away, but as yet Mrs. Sutton and Fredericwere her only nurses. She had dozed almost constantly during thenight, and been delirious when awakened to take nourishment ortonics, muttering senseless and disconnected words, and moaning inpain, the location and nature of which she could not describe to thesolicitous watchers. 

"I remember that Mabel and I, " she continued, dreamily, after a longpause--then correcting herself, "I ask your pardon, Frederic! I saidI wouldn't speak of her ever again to you, but we were so muchtogether in those days. Moreover, it has troubled me at times, thatyou did not know who your real friends were, and she did likeyou--and--and--what am I saying! You shouldn't let me run on so!"

She raised her hand with difficulty, and tried to wipe away the filmgathering over her dilated eyes. 

"Never mind, my darling! Do not attempt to talk! You are too weakand tired!" said her husband, tenderly. 

"Tired!" catching at the word, "That is it! There is nothing elsethe matter, whatever Dr. Ritchie and the rest of them may say. Tired! for how many years I have been THAT! It seems like athousand. This world is a tiresome place to most people, I think Ishall never forget how jaded Mabel looked that week, " breaking off, as before, with a frightened start, such as a dreamer gives when hefancies he is falling from an immeasurable height. "Indeed, Fred, dear!" feeling for his hand upon the coverlet, "I did not mean towound or offend you. It was a terrible ordeal for you, my love! Butyou came out of it as silver seven times refined. That is what thetext says--isn't it? And you and Aunt Rachel are friends once more!That is one good deed I have done. I hope it will be recorded upTHERE! Heaven knows there are not so many that I can afford to haveone overlooked!"

Another season of dozing, and she awoke, rubbing her hands feeblytogether, as to cleanse them. 

"My hands ought to be whiter--purer! I know what ails them. I shouldhave picked up the letter she--Mrs. Sutton--wrote you. But I lovedyou so--even then!" beseechingly. "You will not hate me when I amgone? I mean when you get back to Philadelphia, and I am well enoughto be left here. I was sure, if you got it, you would come toRidgeley, and I let it go down the stream--down--down! Frederic!"

"I am here, dearest!" slipping his arm under, and raising her, asher shrill cry rang out, and she grasped the empty air. "Rosa, myWIFE!"

"I thought I was strangling--in the water! I am your wife--am I not?She couldn't take you from me if she were here. I wish she were! Ialways liked Mabel. She was a good, true woman--but she did not loveyou as I did!"

Panting for breath, she leaned upon her husband's breast, and hereyelids fell together again. Only for a moment! Then a smile--fond, sweet, and penitent--played among the ashy shadows encircling hermouth. "Poor little Florence! I am sorry I was cross to her. Tellher so, papa!" Her husband stooped to kiss her, laid her back uponthe pillows, closed the sightless eyes, and left Mrs. Sutton alonewith the dead. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

AFTER FIFTEEN YEARS. 

"OLD Mrs. Tazewell has departed this life at last!" said WinstonAylett, entering his own parlor one bleak November evening on hisreturn from the village post-office. "I met Al. Branch on the roadjust now. For a wonder he was sober--in honor of the occasion, Isuppose. He and Gus. Tabb are to sit up with the corpse to-night. "

"When did she die?" queried his wife, drawing her skirts aside, thathe might get nearer the fire. 

"At twelve o'clock to-day. That is, she ceased the unprofitablebusiness of respiration at that hour. She died, virtually, fiveyears ago. She has been little better than a mummy for that period. "

"Poor old lady!" said Mabel Dorrance, regretfully, from her cornerof the hearth. "Hers was a kind heart, while she could think and actintelligently. One of my earliest recollections is of the daintieswith which she used to ply me when I visited Rosa. She was anindulgent parent and mistress, yet I suppose few even of those mostnearly related to her will mourn her loss. "

"It would be very foolish if they did!" Mr. Aylett picked up thetongs to mend the fire. "And very unnatural did they not rejoice atbeing rid of a burden. The old place has been going to destructionall these years, and it could not be sold while she cumbered theupper earth. "

No one replied directly to this delicate and feeling observation, and Mrs. Aylett presently diverted the conversation slightly bysaying, --

"And Alfred Branch has gone to tender his services to the family!There is something romantic in his constancy to a memory. From theday of Rosa's death, he has embraced every chance of testifying hisrespect for and wish to serve her friends. He is a sadder wreck thanwas Mrs. Tazewell. You would hardly recognize him, Mabel. His hairand beard are white as those of a man of sixty-five, and his facebloated out of all comeliness. "

"White heat!" interjected Mr. Aylett. "He can not last much longer. "

"And all because a pretty girl said him 'Nay!'" pursued the wife. 

Mr. Aylett and Mr. Dorrance made characteristic responses in abreath. 

"The greater blockhead he!" said one. 

The other, "His was never a rightly balanced mind, I suspect. Ialways thought him weak and impressionable. "

"Are your adjectives synonymous?" asked Mrs. Aylett playfully. 

"Generally!"

Her brother had been reading at a distant window, while the daylightsufficed to show him the type of his book. He now laid it by, andcame forward into the redder circle of radiance cast by the burninglogs. He was in his forty-third year, saturnine of visage, coldlymonotonous in accent, a business machine that did its work in good, substantial style, and undertook no "fancy jobs. " He had amassed ahandsome fortune, built a handsome house, and married a handsomewoman, all of which appendages to his consequence he contemplatedwith grim complacency. As regarded spiritual likeness, mutualaffection, and assimilation of feeling and opinion, he and his wifehad receded, the one from the other, in the fourteen years of theirwedded life. There had been no decided rupture. Both dislikedaltercations, and where radical opposition of sentiment existed, they avoided the unsafe ground by tacit consent. Mabel's uniformpolicy was that of outward submission to the mandates of her chief. 

"After all, it makes little difference!" she fell into the habit ofsaying in the earlier years of matronhood, and he interpreted herlistless acquiescence in his decrees as faith in the soundness ofhis judgment, the infallibility of his decisions. No woman of senseand spirit ever becomes an exemplar in unquestioning obedience to amortal man, unless through apathy--fatal torpor of mind or heart. Of this fact in moral history our respactable barrister was happilyignorant. He was no better versed in the lore of the heart femininethan when he accepted Mabel Aylett's esteem and friendly regard inlieu of the shy, but ardent attachment a betrothed maiden shouldhave for the one she means to make her husband. 

He respected her thoroughly, and loved her better than he didanybody else. She was the one woman he recognized as his sister'ssuperior--supremacy due to the influence of single-minded integrityand modest dignity. What Mabel said, he believed without gainsaying;while Clara's clever dicta required winnowing to separate theprobably spurious from the possibly true. If his tone, in addressinghis wife, was seldom affectionate, it was never careless, as thatwhich replied to his sister's raillery. 

"Generally, " he said in his metallic, unmodulated voice. "The manwho would cast away health, usefulness, and fortune in his chagrinat not winning the hand of a shallow-pated, volatile flirt, must beboth silly and susceptible. "

"Rosa Tazewell may have been shallow of heart, but she was not ofpate, " answered Mr. Aylett, with a cold sneer. "She was a fairplotter, and not fickle of purpose when she had her desires upon amuch-coveted object. Her marriage proved that. She meant tocaptivate Chilton before she had known him a month--yes, and tomarry him, as she finally did. Her intermediate conquests were butthe practice that was to perfect her in her profession. Does anybodyknow, by the way, if he has ever taken a second wife to his bereavedbosom?"

A brief silence, then Mrs. Aylett said, negligently, "I think not. Mrs. Trent, Rosa's sister, was expatiating to me a month since uponthe beauty and accomplishments of his daughter, and she said nothingof a step-mother. Father and child live with a married sister ofMrs. Chilton, I believe. "

"I had not heard that Rosa left a child, " remarked Mabel, interested. "I understood that two died before the mother. "

"Only one--and that the younger. Miss Florence is now twelve yearsold, Mrs. Trent says. I saw her at church once, when she wasvisiting her grandmother and aunts. She is really passable--but veryunlike her mother. "

Mabel did not join in the desultory talk that engaged the othersuntil supper-time. There was a broken string in her heart, thatjangled painfully when touched by an incautious hand. 

"Twelve years old!" she was saying, inwardly. "My darling would havebeen thirteen, had she lived!"

And then flitted before her fancy a girlish form, with pure, lovingeyes, and a voice melodious as a mocking-bird's. Warm arms wereabout her neck, and a round, soft cheek laid against hers--as nohuman arms and face would ever caress her--her, the childless, whosehad been the hopes, fears, pains--never the recompence of maternity. 

She had been to the graveyard that day--secretly, lest her husbandshould frown, Clara wonder, and Winston sneer at her love for andmemory of that which had never existed, according to their renderingof the term. She had trimmed the wire-grass out of the littlehollow, above which the mound had not been renewed since the day ofher baby's burial, and, trusting to the infrequency of others'visits to the neglected enclosure, had laid a bunch of whiterose-buds over the unmarked dust she accounted still a part of herheart, 'neath which it had lain so long. People said she had neverbeen a mother; never had had a living child; had no hope of seeingit in heaven. God and she knew better. 

"Clara, I wish you to attend Mrs. Tazewell's funeral thisafternoon, " said Mr. Aylett at breakfast the next day but one afterthis. "There were invidious remarks made upon your non-appearance ather daughter's, and I do not choose that my family shall furnishfood for neighborhood scandal. "

"My dear Winston, you must recollect what an insufferable headache Ihad that day. "

"Don't have one to-day, " ordered her husband laconically. "Mabel, doyou care to go?"

"By all means. I would not fail, even in seeming, in renderingrespect to one I used to like so much, and whose kindness to me wasunvarying. You have no objection, Herbert?"

"None. I may accompany you--the day being fine, and the roads intolerable order. "

The funeral was conducted with the disregard of what are, in otherregions, established customs that distinguish such occasions in therural districts of Virginia. 

Written notices had been sent out, far and near, the day before, announcing that the services would begin at two o'clock, but whenthe Aylett party arrived at a quarter of an hour before the timespecified, there was no appearance of regular exercises of any kind. A dozen carriges besides theirs were clustered about the front gate, and a long line of saddle-horses tethered to the fence. Knots ofgentlemen in riding costume dotted the lawn and porches, andwithin-doors ladies sat, or walked at their ease in the parlor anddining room, or gathered in silent tearfulness around the opencoffin in the wide central hall. 

The bed-room of the deceased was a roomy apartment in a wing of thebuilding, and to this Mabel was summoned before she could seatherself elsewhere. 

"Miss Mary's compliments and love, ma'am; and she says won't youplease step in thar, and set with Mistis' friends and relations?"was the audible message delivered to her by Mrs. Trent's sprywaiting-maid. 

Herbert looked dubious, and Mrs. Aylett enlarged her fine eyes in amanner that might mean either superciliousness or well-bredamazement. But Mabel was neither surprised nor doubtful as to theproper course for her to pursue. Time was when she was as much athome here as Rosa herself, and Mrs. Tazewell's partiality for herwas shared by others of the family. That she had met none of them inten or twelve years, did not at a season like the present dampentheir affection. They would rather on this account seize upon theopportunity of honoring publicly their mother's old favorite. 

The chamber was less light than the hall she traversed to reach it. 

She recognized Mary Trent, the daughter next in age to Rosa, whofell upon her neck in a sobbing embrace, then the other sisters andtheir brother, Morton Tazewell, with his wife, and was formallypresented to their children. 

Finally she turned inquiringly toward a gentleman who stood againstthe window opposite the door, with a little girl beside him. 

Confused beyond measure, as the hitherto unthought-of consequencesof her impulsive action in sending for her friend rushed upon hermind, Mrs. Trent faltered out:

"I forgot! You must excuse me, but I was so anxious to see you. Mybrother-in-law, Mr. Chilton. He arrived yesterday--not having heardof mother's death. "

And for the first time since they looked their passionate farewellinto each other's eyes under the rose-arch of the portico atRidgeley, on that rainy summer morning, the two who had been loversagain touched hands. 

"I hope you are quite well, Mr. Chilton, " said Mabel's firm, gentlevoice. "Is this your daughter?" kissing the serious-faced child onthe forehead, and looking intently into her eyes in the hope ofdiscovering a resemblance to her mother. 

Then she went back to a chair next to Mrs. Trent's, and began totalk softly of the event that had called them together, not glancingagain at the window until the outer hall was stilled, that theclergyman might begin the funeral prayer. 

"The services will be concluded at the grave, " was the announcementthat succeeded the sermon; and there followed the shuffling of thebearers' feet, and their measured tramp across the floors and downthe steps of the back porch. 

The daughters and daughter-in-law let fall their veils and pulled ontheir gloves, and Herbert Dorrance beckoned somewhat impatiently tohis wife from the parlor door. While she was on her way to join him, she saw his complexion vary to a greenish sallow, his mouth workspasmodically, and his eyes sink in anger or dismay. 

Winston Aylett likewise noted and knew it, for the same look ofabject terror he had observed upon the hard Scotch face when Mabelenumerated upon her fingers those she accused of having robbed herof her babe. 

The wife attributed it to displeasure at seeing Frederic Chiltonamong the mourners. Her whilom guardian, never charitable overmuch, inclined the more to the belief begotten within him by otherincidents, to wit: that his brother-in-law's talk was more doughtythan his deeds, and his real sentiment upon beholding the man heboasted of having flogged as a libertine and coward, was physicaldread for his own safety. Watchful alike of the other party to theancient quarrel, he was rewarded by the sight of Chilton'sirrepressible start and frown, when Mabel put her hand within herhusband's arm, and stood awaiting the formation of the procession. The discarded lover gazed steadfastly into Dorrance's countenance inpassing to his place, in recognition that scouted assimilarity withsalutation, but his eye did not waver or his color fade. 

"I would not be afraid to wager that this is but another version ofthe fable of the statue of the man rampant and the lion couchant, "thought Mr. Aylett, following with his wife in the funeral traindown the grass-grown alley leading through the garden to the familyburying-ground. "It would be an entertaining study of human veracityif I could hear Chilton's story, and compare the two. He is eitheran audacious rascal, or there is something back of all that I haveheard which will not bear the light. "

It was not remorse at the thought of the total alteration in hissister's life and feelings that had grown out of this imperfect orfalse evidence, but simple curiosity to inspect the lineaments andnote the actions of the cool rascal whose audacity commanded hisadmiration, and note his bearing in the event of his coming intocloser contact with his former foe, that prompted him to single himout for scrutiny among those whose relationship to the deceasedsecured them places nearest the grave. 

For a time the widower was gravely quiet, holding his child's handand looking down steadfastly into the pit at his feet, perhapsremembering more vividly than anything else a certain sunny day inMarch, many years back, when another fissure yawned close by, wherenow a green mound--the ridged scar with which the earth had closedthe wound in her breast--and a stately shaft of white marble wereall that remained to the world of "Rosa, wife of Frederic Chilton. "But, while the mould was being heaped upon the coffin, he raised hiseyes, and let them rove aimlessly over the crowd, neither avoidingnor courting observation--the cursory regard of a man who had nostrong interest in any person or group there. They changedsingularly in resting upon the family from Ridgeley. A stare ofstupefaction gave place to living fires of angry suspicion andamazement--lurid flame that testified its violence in the reddeningof cheeks and brow, in the dilating nostril and quivering lips. Thenhe passed his hand downward over his features, evidently consciousof their distortion, and striving after a semblance of equanimity, and looked again in stern fixity, not at her from whom he had beenparted in the early summer of his manhood, nor at his successfulrival, nor yet at the guardian who had offered him gratuitous insultin addition to the injury of refusing to permit his ward's marriagewith a disgraced adventurer--but at Mrs. Aylett, the chatelaine ofRidgeley, the wife whose serene purity had never been blemished by adoubting breath; chaste and polished matron; the admired copy foryounger and less discreet, but not more beautiful women. He surveyedher boldly--if the imagination had not seemed preposterous--Mr. Aylett would have said scornfully, as he might study the face andfigure of some abandoned wretch who had accosted him in the publicthoroughfare as an acquaintance. 

A haughty and uncontrollable gesture from the husband succeeded indiverting the offender's notice to himself for one instant--notmore. But in that flash he detected a shade of difference in theexpression that irked him; a ray, that was inquiry, sharp and eager, tempered by compassion, yet still contemptuous. 

All this passed in less time than it has taken me to write a linedescriptive of the pantomime. The mound was shaped, and thedecorously mournful train turned from it to retrace their course tothe house, Frederic Chilton imitating the example of those abouthim, but moving like a sleep-walker, his brows corrugated and eyessightless to all surrounding objects. He had awakened when theRidgeley carriage drove to the door. Mrs. Sutton detained Mabel inone of the upper chambers to concert plans for a visit to thehomestead while the Dorrances should be there. Aunt and niece hadnot met since the arrival of the latter in Virginia, a fortnightbefore, the elder lady being in constant attendance upon Mrs. Tazewell. 

"This is very stupid! And I am getting hungry!" said Mrs. Aylett, aside to her lord, as she stood near a front window, tapping thefloor with her feet, while vehicle after vehicle received its loadand rolled off. "We shall be the last on the ground. Herbert! can'tyou intimate to Mabel that we are impatient to be gone?"

"I don't know where she is!" growled the brother, for oncenon-complaisant to her behest, and not stirring from the chair inthe corner into which he had dropped at his entrance. 

His head hung upon his breast, and he appeared to study the liningof his hat-crown, balancing the brim by his forefingers between hisknees. Mrs. Aylett had lowered her veil in the burying-ground or onher way thither, but it was a flimsy mass of black lace--richlywrought, yet insufficient to hide the paleness of the upper part ofher visage. Mr. Aylett watched and wondered, with but one definiteidea in his brain beyond the resolve to ferret out the entiremystery in his stealthy, taciturn fashion. Herbert Dorrance hadbeen, in some manner, compromised by his association with thisChilton, had reason to dread exposure from him, and his sister wasthe confidante of his guilty secret. 

"I shall know all about it in due season, " thought the master ofhimself and his dependents. 

Not that he meant to extort or wheedle it from his consort'skeeping, but he had implicit faith in his own detective talents. 

"Here she is at last!" he said, when Mabel came down the staircase, holding Aunt Rachel's hand, and talking low and earnestly, her nobleface and even gliding step a refreshing contrast to Mrs. Aylett'snervousness and Herbert's dogged sullenness. 

"I am sorry I have kept you so long, but there will be less dustthan if we had gone sooner. The other carriages will have had timeto get out of our way, " she said, pleasantly. "Winston, " coming upto her brother, and speaking in an undertone, "will it be quiteconvenient for you to send for Aunt Rachel on next Friday?"

"Entirely! The carriage shall be at your service at any hour or dayyou wish, " with more cordiality than was common with him. 

However treacherous others might be in their reserve andhalf-confessions, here was one who had never deceived him orknowingly misled him to believe her better, or otherwise, than shewas. Honesty and truth were stamped upon her face by a life-longpractice of these homely virtues--not by meretricious arts. It wastardy justice, but he rendered it without grudging, if not heartily. 

A few words passed as to the hour at which the carriage was to callfor Mrs. Sutton, and Mabel kissed her "Good-by, " the others shakinghands with her, and with three or four of the Tazewell kinsmen whoofficiated as masters of ceremonies, and Mrs. Aylett made animpatient movement toward the front steps. Directly in her route, leaning against a pillar of the old-fashioned porch, was FredericChilton, no longer dreamy and perplexed, but on the alert with eyeand ear--not losing one sound of her voice, or trick of feature. Sheinclined her head slightly and courteously, the notice due a friendof the house she, as guest, was about to leave. He did not bow, norrelax the rigor of his watch. Only, when she was seated in thecarriage, he bent respectfully and mutely before Mabel, who followedher hostess, and paying as little attention to the two gentlemen asthey did to him walked up to Mrs. Sutton, and said somethinginaudible to the bystanders. As they drove out of the yard, theRidgeley quartette saw the pair saunter, side by side, to theextreme end of the portico, apparently to be out of hearing of therest, but no one remarked aloud upon the renewed intimacy and thenconfidential attitude. 

"If it is anything very startling, the old gossip will never keep itto herself, " Mr. Aylett congratulated himself, while his wife'scomplexion paled gradually to bloodlessness, and Herbert sat back inhis corner, sulky and dumb. "And she is coming to us on Friday!"

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THUNDER IN THE AIR. 

THE only malady that put Herbert Dorrance in frequent and unpleasantremembrance of his mortality was a fierce headache, which had oflate years supervened upon any imprudence in diet, and uponexcessive agitation of mind or physical exertion. His invariablecustom, when he awoke at morning with one of these, was to trace itto its supposed source, and after determining that it was nothingmore than might have been expected from the circumstance, to commithimself to his wife's nursing for the day. 

She ought, therefore, to have been surprised when, while admittingthat the pain in his head was intense, he yet, on the morrowsucceeding Mrs. Tazewell's funeral, persisted in rising and dressingfor breakfast. 

"It must have been the roast duck at dinner yesterday, " he calmlyand languidly explained the attack. "It was fat, and the stuffingreeked with butter, sage, and onion. An ostrich could not havedigested it. I was tired, too, and should not have eaten heartily ofeven the plainest food. "

Mabel neither opposed nor sustained the theory. She had slept so illherself as to know how restless he had been; had heard his hardlysuppressed sighs and tossings to and fro, infallible indicationswith him of serious perturbation. Had his discomfort been bodilyonly, he would have felt no compunction in calling her to his aid, as he had done scores of times. Her sleepless hours had also beenfraught with melancholy disquiet. Putting away from her--withfirmness begotten by virtue born of will--and so much of thisthoughtfulness as pertained to the bygone days with which FredericChilton was inseparable associated, she yet deliberated seriouslyupon the expediency of speaking out courageously to Herbert of therelation this man had once borne to her, the incidents of theirrecent meeting, and the effect she saw was produced upon herhusband's mind by the sight of him. 

"If we would have this negative happiness continue, this matterought to be settled at once and forever, " she said, inwardly. "Hemust not suspect me of weak and wicked clinging to the phantoms ofmy youth; must believe that I do not harbor a regret or wishincompatible with my duty as his wife. I will avail myself of thefirst favorable moment to assure him of the folly of his fears andof his discomfort. "

Another consideration--the natural sequence of her conviction of hisunhappiness--was a touching appeal to her woman's heart. If he hadnot loved her more fervently than his phlegmatic temperament andundemonstrative bearing would induce one to suppose, he would notdread the rekindling of her olden fancy for another. The image ofhim who, she had confessed, had taught her the depth and weight ofher own affections, whom she had loved as she had never professed tocare for him, would not have haunted his pillow to chase sleep, andtorture him with forebodings. 

"I must make him comprehend that Mabel Aylett at twenty, wilful, romantic, and undisciplined, was a different being from the womanwho has called him 'husband, ' without a blush, for fourteen years!"

It was these recollections that softened her kindly tones totenderness; made the pressure of her hand upon his temples a caress, rather than a manual appliance for deadening pain; while shecombated his intention of appearing at the breakfast-table. 

"Lie down upon the sofa!" she entreated. "Let me bring up a cup ofstrong coffee for you; then darken the room, and chafe your headuntil you fall asleep, since you turn a deaf ear to all proposals ofmustard foot-baths and Dr. Van Orden's panacea pills. "

"No!" stubbornly. "Aylett and Clara would think it strange. They donot understand how a slight irregularity of diet or habit canproduce such a result. They would attribute it to other causes. Imay feel better when I have taken something nourishing. "

The dreaded critics received the tidings of his indispositionwithout cavil at its imputed origin, treated the whole subject withcomparative indifference, which would have mortified him a week ago, but seemed now to assuage his unrest. The breakfast hour was a quietone. Herbert could not attempt the form of eating, despite hisexpressed hope of the curative effects of nourishment, and sippedhis black coffee at tedious intervals of pain, looking more illafter each. Mabel was silent, and regardful of his suffering, whileMrs. Aylett toyed with the tea-cup, broke her biscuit into smallheaps of crumbs upon her plate, and under her visor of ennui andindolent musing, kept her eye upon her vis-a-vis, whose face wasopaque ice; and his intonations, when he deigned to speak, meantnothing save that he was controller of his own meditations, andwould not be meddled with. 

"You are not well enough to ride over to the Courthouse with me, Dorrance?" he said, interrogatively, his meal despatched. "It iscourt-day, you know?"

"What do you say, Mabel?" was Herbert's clumsy reference to hisnurse. "Don't you think I might venture?"

"I would not, if I were in your place, " she replied, cautiouslydissuasive. "The day is raw, and there will be rain before evening. Dampness always aggravates neuralgia. "

"It is neuralgia, then, is it?" queried Winston, shortly, drawing onhis boots. 

His sister looked up surprised. 

"What else should it be?"

"Nothing--unless the symptoms indicate softening of the brain!" herejoined, with his slight, dissonant laugh. "In either case, yourdecision is wise. He is better off in your custody than he would beabroad. I hope I shall find you convalescent when I return. Goodmorning!"

His wife accompanied him to the outer door. 

"It is chilly!" she shivered, as this was opened. "Are you warmlyclad, love?" feeling his overcoat. "And don't forget your umbrella. "

Her hand had not left his shoulder, and, in offering a parting kiss, she leaned her head there also. 

"I wish you would not go!" she said impulsively and sincerely. 

"Why?"

"I cannot say--except that I dread to be left alone all day. You maylaugh at me, but I feel as if something terrible were hanging overme--or you. The spiritual oppression is like the physicalpresentiment sensitive temperaments suffer when a thunder-storm isbrooding, but not ready to break. Yet I can refer my fears to noknown cause. "

"That is folly. " Mr. Aylett bit off the end of a cigar, and felt inhis vest pocket for a match-safe. "You should be able always toassign a reason for the fear as well as the hope that is in you. Youhave no idea, you say, from what recent event your prognosticationtakes its hue?"

She laughed, and straightened her fine neck. 

"From the same imprudence that has consigned poor Herbert to thehouse for the day, I suspect--a late and heavy dinner. I had thenightmare twice before morning. You will be home to supper?"

"Yes. "

Hesitating upon the monosyllable, he took hold of her elbows, so asto bring her directly before him, and searched her countenance untilit was dyed with blushes. 

"Why do you color so furiously?" he asked in raillery that had a sador sardonic accent. "I was about to ask if you would be inconsolableif I never came back. Perhaps your presentiment points to some suchfatality. These little accidents have happened in better-regulatedfamilies than ours. "

"WINSTON!"

She gasped and blanched in pain or terror. 

"What is the matter? Have I hurt you?" releasing his grasp. 

"Yes--HERE!" laying his hand upon her heart, the beautiful eyesterrified and pathetic as those of a wounded deer. "For the love ofHeaven, never stab me again with such suggestions. When you die, Ishall not care to live. When you cease to love me, I shall wish wehad died together on our marriage-day--my husband!"

He let her twine her arms about his neck, laid his cheek to herbrow, clasped her tightly and kissed her impetuously, madly, againand yet again--disengaged himself, and ran down the steps. She wasstanding on the top one, still flushed and breathless from theviolence of his embrace, when he looked back from the gate, hercommanding figure framed by the embowering creepers, as Mabel'sgirlish shape had been when Frederic Chilton waved his farewell toher from the same spot. 

Did either of them think of it, or would either have reckoned it anominous coincidence, if the remembrance of that long-ago parting hadpresented itself then and there?

Herbert spent the day upon the lounge in the family sitting-room--acosy retreat, between the parlor and the conservatory, which hadbeen added to the lower floor in the reign of the present queen. Herbrother's seizure was no trifling ailment. Alternations of stuporand racking spasms of pain defied, for several hours, his wife'sapplication of the remedies she had found efficacious in formerattacks. Her ultimate resort was chloroform, and by the liberal useof this, relaxation of the tense nerves and a sleep that resembledhealing repose were induced by the middle of the afternoon. Theweather continued to threaten rain, although none had fallen as yet, and the wind moaned lugubriously in the leafless branches of thegreat walnut before the end window of the narrow apartment. It was agrand tree, the patriarch of the grove that sheltered the house fromthe north winds. Mabel, relieved from watchfulness, and to someextent from anxiety, by her husband's profound slumber, lay back inher chair with a long-drawn sigh, and looked out at the naked limbsof the wrestling giant--the majestic sway and reel she used to notewith childish awe--and thought of many things which had befallen hersince then, until the steady rocking of the boughs and hum of theNovember breeze soothed her into languor--then drowsiness--thenoblivion. 

She awoke in alarm at the sense of something hurtful or startlinghovering near her. 

The fire had been trimmed before she slept, and now flamed up gayly;the window was dusky, as were the distant corners of the room, andHerbert was gazing steadfastly at her. 

"I fell asleep without knowing it. I am sorry! Have you wantedanything? How long have you been awake?"

"Only a few minutes, my dearest!" with no change in the mesmericintentness of his gaze. "I want nothing more than to have you alwaysnear me. You have been a good, faithful wife, Mabel, better andnobler--a thousandfold nobler than I deserved. I have thought it allover while you were sleeping so tranquilly in my sight. I wish myconscience were void of evil to all mankind as is yours. I awokewith an odd and awful impression upon my mind. The firelight flamedin a bright stream between your chair and me--and I must havedreamed it--or the chloroform had affected my head--I thought it wasa river of light dividing us! You were a calm, white angel who hadentered into rest--uncaring for and forgetful of me. I was lost, homeless, wandering forever and ever!"

Had her prosaic spouse addressed her in a rhythmic improvisation, Mabel could not have been more astounded. 

"You are dreaming yet!" she said, kneeling by him and binding histemples with her cool, firm palms. "When we are divided, it will beby a dark--not a bright river. "

"Until death do us part!" Herbert repeated, thoughtfully. "I wish Icould hear you say, once, that you do not regret that clause of yourmarriage vow. I was not your heart's choice, you know, Mabel, however decided may have been the approval of your friends and ofyour judgment. The thought oppresses me as it did not in the firstyears of our wedded life. "

"I am glad you have spoken of this, " began the wife. "I woulddisabuse your mind--"

"All in the dark!" exclaimed Mrs. Aylett, at the door. "And what astifling odor of chloroform!"

Mabel got up, and drew a heavy travelling-shawl that coveredHerbert's lower limbs over his arms and chest. 

"I will open the window!" she said, deprecatingly. 

A sluice of cold air rushed in, beating the blaze this way and that, puffing ashes from the hearth into the room, and eliciting from Mrs. Aylett what would have been a peevish interjection in another woman. 

"My dear sister! the remedy is worse than the offence. Chloroform ispreferable to creosote, or whatever abominable element is theprincipal ingredient of smoke and cold! The thermometer must be downto the freezing-point!"

Mabel lowered the sash. 

"You have been sitting in a room without fire, I suspect. Thetemperature here is delightful. I am sorry we have exiled you fromsuch comfortable quarters. "

"Don't speak of it! I cannot endure to sit here alone--or anywhereelse. I have slept most of the afternoon. How the wind blows! I wishWinston were at home. "

"It is a dark afternoon. He seldom returns from court so early asthis. It is not six yet. "

Mabel still essayed pacification of the other's ruffled mood. 

"You are better, I see, " Mrs. Aylett said abruptly to her brother. "You were not subject to these spells formerly. People generallyoutlive constitutional headaches--so I have noticed. It is queeryours should occur so often and wax more violent each time. Youshould have medical advice before they ripen into a more seriousdisorder. "

Herbert shaded his eyes from the fire, and lay with out replying, until his wife believed he had relapsed into a doze. 

She was convinced of her mistake by his saying, slowly anddistinctly, --

"You do not enter into Clara's whole meaning, Mabel. We have beencareful, all of us, never to tell you that our father was imbecileby the time he was fifty and died, in his sixtieth year, of thedisease your brother named this morning--softening of the brain. I, of all his children, am most like him physically. If it be true thatthis danger menaces me, you should be informed of it, and know, furthermore, that it is incurable. "

Mabel also paused before answering. 

"I cannot assent to the hypothesis of your inherited malady, Herbert. These headaches may mean nothing. But let that be as itmay, you should have told me of this before. "

"You see, " broke in Mrs. Aylett's triumphant sarcasm. "The reward ofyour maiden attempt at congugal confidence is reproof. What have Iwarned you from the beginning?"

"Not reproof, " corrected Mabel, in mild decision. "My knowledge ofthe secret he deemed it wise and kind to withhold would have gainedfor him my sympathy, and my more constant and intelligent care ofhis health. It is the hidden fear that grows and multiplies itselfmost rapidly. Before it is killed it must be dragged to the light. "

"That is YOUR hypothesis, " was the bright retort. "We Dorrances havejustly earned a reputation for dissretion by the excellentpreservation of our own secrets, and those committed to our keepingby our friends. My motto is, tell others nothing about yourselfwhich they cannot learn without your confession. An autobiography isalways either a bore or a blunder. Not that I would regulate thenumber and nature of your divulgations to your wife, Herbert. As toWinston's unlucky hit this morning, it was mere fortuity. I havenever felt myself called upon to enlighten him in family secrets, and his is an incurious disposition. He never asks idle questions. He has a marvellous faculty of striking home-blows in the dark, butthat is no reason why one should betray his wound by crying out. Apropos to darkness, may I ring for a lamp, or will the light hurtyour eyes?"

"The fire-light is more trying, " rejoined Mabel, pushing a screenbefore the sofa, and placing herself where she could, in its shadow, hold her husband's hand. 

It was cold and limp when she lifted it, but tightened upon herswith the instinctive grip of gratitude too profound to be uttered. 

She had never been so near loving him as at the instant in which hebelieved he had incurred her ever-lasting displeasure. Generosityand pity were fast undoing the petrifying influences of her earlydisappointment, their mutual reserve, and tacit misunderstandings. If half he feared were true, his need of her affection, her counseland companionship were dire. Whatever wrong he had done her bykeeping back the tale of hereditary infirmity, he had suffered morefrom the act than she could ever do. Who knew how much of what she, with others, mistook for constitutional phlegm and studiedausterity, was the outward sign of the battle between dread of hisinherited doom and the resolve of an iron will to defy natural lawsand the sentence of destiny herself, and hold reason upon herrickety throne?

Heaven's gentlest and kindest angels were busy with Mabel Dorrance'sheart in that reverie, and, as they wrought, the cloud that hadrested there for fifteen years broke into rainbow smiles thatillumined her countenance into the similitude of the shining ones. 

"I bless Thee, Father, the All-wise and Ever-merciful, that she issafe!" was her voiceless thanksgiving. 

No more bitter tears over the lonely, sunken grave! no morehearkening, with aching, never-to-be-satisfied ears for the patterof the "little feet that never trod. " The great sorrow of her lifethat had been good in His sight was at length a blessing in hers. Her "hereafter" of knowledge of His doings had come to her in thisworld. 

"Does it rain, Peter?" questioned Mrs. Aylett of the lad who broughtin lights. 

"Yes, ma'am. It's beginnin' to storm powerful!" he said, respectfully communicative. 

"Your master has not come?"

"No, ma'am. "

"See that the lantern over the great gate is lighted, and that someone is ready to take his horse. And, Peter, " as he was going out, "tell Thomas not to bring in supper until Mr. Aylett returns. "

She moved to the window, bowed her hands on either side of her eyesto exclude the radiance within, and strained them into the black, black night. 

"He will have a dark and a disagreeable ride, " she said, coming backto the fire. 

Her uneasiness was so palpable as to excite Mabel's compassion. 

"Every step of the road is familiar to him, and he is accustomed tonight rides, " she said, encouragingly. "Yes, " absently. "But he willbe very wet. Hear the rain!"

It plashed against the north window, and tinkled upon the tin roofof the conservatory, and Mabel, though aware of her brother'shabitual disregard of wind and weather, could not but sympathizewith the wifely concern evinced by the sober physiognomy andunsettled demeanor of one generally so calm. She observed, now, thather sister-in-law was arrayed more richly than usual, and her attirewas always handsome and tasteful. A deep purple silk, trimmed uponskirt and waist with velvet bands of darker purple, showed off herclear skin to fine advantage, and was saved from monotony of effectby a headdress of lace and buff ribbons. A stately and a comelymatron, she was bedight for her lord's return; weighed as heavy eachminute that detained him from her arms. 

She was still standing by the low mantel, her arm resting lightlyupon it, the fire-blaze bringing out lustrous reflections in herdrapery and hair, and tinging her pensive check with youthfulcarmine, when her husband entered. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

NEMESIS. 

IT was a peculiarity of Winston Aylett that he was never discomposedin seeming, however embarrassing or distressing might be hisposition. In his childhood he was one to whom, to use the commonphrase, dirt would not stick. His face was clean and fair, his handssmooth, and his hair in order after rough and tumble experiencesthat sent his companions home begrimed, ragged, and unkempt frights. To-night, he had ridden a dozen miles in the teeth of the storm, andmade no pause before appearing before his wife and sister, except tolay off his hat and overcoat in the hall. But had he expected toencounter a roomful of ladies, his costume could not have been moreunexceptionable. 

His linen was pure and fresh, even to the narrow line of wristbandedging his coat sleeve; his clearly cut patrician features weretranquil in every line and tint; his step was the light, yetdeliberate stride of an athlete without passion or bravado. Conscious power, inexorable will, and thorough self-command werestamped upon him from crown to foot, and his salutation to the smallfamily party accompanied a smile as mirthless and cold as were hiseyes. 

Mrs. Aylett advanced a step, not more, and returned the bow thatcomprehended all present, with a pleased, not rapturous welcome. 

"We were beginning to fear lest you might be wet, " she said, emulating his polite equanimity. Genuine tact is alwayschameleon-like in quality. "It rains quite fast, does it not?"

"The storm is increasing, but I experienced no inconvenience fromit, thank you. "

He sat down in his favorite arm-chair, and spread his fingers beforethe fire. 

"I am happy to see you so very much better"--to Herbert. "There weremany kind inquiries for you at the court-house to-day. Dr. Ritchiewanted to know if you had ever taken nux vomica for these neuralgicturns. I invited him to come in with me and prescribe for you, buthe said he must push on home, so we parted at the outer gate. "

So affable as almost to put others at their ease in his company, hechatted until supper was announced; regretted civilly Herbert'sinability to go to the table, and gave his sister his arm into thedining-room, Mrs. Aylett following in their wake. If he did not eatheartily, he praised, in gentlemanly moderation, the viands selectedby his consort for his delectation after his wet ride, and pleaded alate dinner as the reason of his present abstinence. Then theyadjourned to the apartment where they had left Mr. Dorrance, and thehost produced his cigar-case. 

"Mabel says that smoke never offends your olfactories, or affectsyour head unpleasantly, when you are suffering from this nervousaffection, " he said to Herbert. 

"On the contrary, it often acts as a sedative, " was the reply. 

Winston lighted a cigar with an allumette from a bronzetaper-stand--a Christmas gift from his wife, which she kept suppliedwith fanciful spiles twisted and fringed into a variety of shapes;drew several long breaths to be certain that the fire had taken holdof the heart of the Havana, tossed the pretty paper into the embers, and resumed his seat in the chimney corner. 

"A sedative is a good thing for people who allow their nerves to getout of gear, " he remarked, dryly and leisurely, puffing contentedlyin the middle and at the end of the sentence. "But he who does thissubverts the order of the ruler aad the ruled. I supposed I hadnerves once, but it is an age since they have dared molest me. Iknow that I had my impulses when I was younger. "

He stopped to fillip the ash forming upon the ignited end of hiscigar, performing the operation with nicety, using the extreme tipof his middle-finger nail over the salver attached for the purposeto the bronze smoking-set. 

"I obeyed one, above a dozen years ago. I learned only to-day thatit was rash and unwise, and to how much evil it may lead. "

"Not a very active evil, if you have just discovered it to be such. "

The speaker was his sister. Herbert was motionless upon his couch. Mrs. Aylett, in the lounging-chair at the opposite side of thehearth from her husband, was cutting the leaves of a new magazine hehad brought from the post-office, and did not seem to hear hisremark. 

"You reason upon the assumption that ignorance is bliss, " said Mr. Aylett. "Allow me to express the opinion that the adage embodyingthat idea is the refuge of cowards and fools. No matter how grievousa bankrupt a man may be financially in spirit, he is craven or ablockhead to shrink the investigation of his accounts. Whichallusion to bankruptcy brings me to the recital of a choicelyoffensive bit of scandal I heard to-day. It is seldom that I giveheed to the like, but the delicious rottenness revealed by this taleenforced my hearing, and fixed the details in my mind. I could notbut think, as I rode home, of the accessories which would addeffectiveness, to-night, to my second-hand narrative. I had thewhole scene, which is now before me, in my mind's eye--the warmfirelight and the shaded lamp brightening all within, while the rainpattered without; the interesting invalid over there graduallystirring into interest as the story progressed; you, Mabel, calmlyand critically attentive; and my Lady Aylett, too proud to look thedesire she really feels to handle the lovely carrion. "

"Your figures are not provocative of insatiable appetite, " returnedhis wife, with inimitable sang-froid, staying her paper knife thatshe might examine an engraving. 

"Your appetite needs further excitants, then? So did mine until Ibegan to suspect that the history might be authentic, and not afigment of the raconteur's imagination. The hero's name at firstdisposed me to set down the entire relation as a fiction. It isromantic enough to perfume a three-volume novel--Julius Lennox!"

Mabel's instinctive thought was for her husband, but, in turning tohim she could not but notice that Mrs. Aylett sat motionless, thepaper-cutter between two leaves, and her left hand pressed hard uponthe upper, but without attempting to sever them. 

Herbert twisted his head upon the pillow until he faced the back ofthe sofa, and a convulsion went through him, hardly quelled by theclasp of Mabel's hand upon his. 

"Julius Lennox!" reiterated Mr. Aylett, between the fragrant puffs, "A lieutenant in the navy--the good-looking, but, as the sequelproved, not over-steady, spouse of a lady who was the daughter ofanother naval officer of similar rank. The latter was compelled toleave the service on account of incipient idiocy, and retired, uponhalf-pay, to an unfashionable quarter of a certain great city, wherehis wife, a smart Yankee, opened a boarding-house for law andmedical students, and contrived not only to keep the souls andbodies of her family together, but to marry off her two still singledaughters--the one to a barrister, the other to a physician. Thelovely Louise Lennox--a pretty alliteration, is it not?--remainedmeanwhile under the paternal roof, her husband's ship being absentmost of the time, and the handsome Julius having unlimitedprivileges in the line condemned by "Black-eyed Susan" in herparting interview with her sailor lover--finding a mistress inevery port. It is woman's nature and wisdom to seek consolation forsuch afflictions as the deprivation of the beloved one's society, and the almost certainty that he is basking his faithless self inthe sunlight of another's eyes. Our heroine, being at once ardentand philosophical, put the lex talionis into force by falling inlove with one of her mother's lodgers, a sprig of the legalprofession. The favored youth--so says my edition of theromance--remained preternaturally unconscious of the sentiment hehad inspired, attributing her manifestations of partiality toplatonic regard, until she opened his modest eyes by proposing anelopement. He had completed his professional studies, taken out alicense to practise law, was about to quit her and the city, and theno-longer-adored Julius was coming home--a wreck in health andpurse--upon a six months' leave of absence. It must be owned theLady Louise had some excuse for a measure that seemed to have amazedand horrified her cicisbeo. Recoiling from the proposition andherself with the virtuous indignation that is ever aroused in themanly bosom by similar advances, he packed up his trunk, double-locked it and his heart, paid his bill, and decamped from thedangerous precincts. 

"Ignoble conclusion to a tender affair; but not so devoid oftragicality as would seem. Infuriated at the desertion of thismodern Joseph, Louise, the lorn, avenged the slight offered hercharms by declaring to her youngest brother, the only one whoresided in the same city with herself, that Joseph had madedishonorable proposals to her--a proceeding which demonstrates thatthe feminine character has withstood the proverbially changingeffects of time from age to age. My narrative is but a later and aGentile version of the Jewish novelette to which I have referred. The role of Potiphar was cast for the unsophisticated brother, who, being unable to immure the unimpressible Joseph in the Tombs, attempted the only means of redress that remained to him, to wit:Personal chastisement. 

"And here, " continued the narrator, yet more slowly, "I find myselfperplexed by the discrepancy between the statement I have had to-dayand one of this section of the story furnished me several yearssince. In the latter the indignant fraternal relative flogged thewould-be betrayer within a quarter of an inch of his life. The otheraccount reverses the position of the parties, and makes Joseph theincorruptible also the invincible. However this may have been, theadventure seems to have quenched the loving Louise's brilliancy fora season. We hear no more of her until after her father's decease, when she re-enters the lists of Cupid in another State, as theblushing and still beautiful virgin-betrothed of a man of birth andmeans, who woos and weds her under her maiden cognomen--the entirefamily, including the valiant brother who figured as whippee orwhipper, in the castigation exploit--being accomplices in therighteous fraud. I might, did I not fear being prolix, tell ofsundry side-issues growing out of the main stalk of this plot, suchas the ingenious manoeuvres by which the promising couple ofconspirators averted, upon the eve of the sister's bridal, thethreatened expose of their machinations to entrap the wealthy lover. Suffice it to say that the duped husband (by brevet) lived for adecade and a half in the placid enjoyment of the ignorance which mysagacious sister here is disposed to confound with rationalbliss--nor is he quite sure, to this day, whether spouse No. 1 ofthe partner of his bosom still lives, or by clearance in what courtof infamy or justice she managed to shuffle off her real name, andwin a right to resume the title of spinster. "

He lighted a fresh cigar, and for the space of perhaps a minute, adead and ominous silence prevailed. Mabel, pallid and faint atheart, could not take her eyes from his countenance, with its cruelsmile, frozen, shallow eyes, and the deep white dints coming andgoing in his nostrils. 

He had judged without partiality. He would condemn without mercy. Hewould punish without remorse. 

Herbert still faced the back of the lounge, but he had slipped hishand from the relaxing hold of hers, and pressed it over his eyes. She could not seek to possess herself of it again. Winston was notthe only dupe of the nefarious fraud, the betrayal of which hadovertaken the guilty pair thus late in their career of duplicity. Yet, however severely she had suffered in heart from their falsehoodand her brother's intolerance, no stain would rest upon her name, while, terminate as the affair might, the disgraceful revelationwould shipwreck her brother's happiness for life, if not bring uponthe old homestead a storm of scandal that would leave no more traceof the honorable reputation heretofore borne by its owners thanremained of the smiling plenty of the cities of the plain after thefiery wrath of the Lord had overthrown them. 

Mrs. Aylett resumed the suspended operation of cutting the leaves ofher new monthly; fluttered them to be certain that none wereoverlooked; laid down the periodical; brushed the scattered bits ofpaper from her silken skirt, and retaining the paper-knife--a costlytoy of mother-of-pearl and silver--changed her position so as tolook her husband directly in the eye. 

"I believe I can give you the information you lack, " she said, incuriously constrained accents, the concentration of some feeling towhich she could or would not grant other vent. "Clara Louise Lennoxobtained a divorce from her first husband on the grounds ofdrunkenness, failure to maintain her, infidelity, and personalill-usage. He came home from sea, as you have said, the batteredruin of a MAN, fallen beyond hope of redemption. There was no law, written or moral, which obliged her, when once freed from it, tocarry about with her and thrust upon the notice of others theloathsome body of death typified by his name and her matronly title. She commenced life anew at her father's death, contrary, let me sayto the advice of all her friends, if I except the mother, who couldrefuse nothing to her favorite daughter. The scheme was boldlyconceived. You have admitted that it was successfully carried out. In New York the family were not known beyond the circle with whichthey disdained to associate when the lodging-house business wasabandoned. There were a thousand chances to one that in her newabode Miss Dorrance would be identified by some busybody with thedivorced Mrs. Lennox. She risked her fortunes upon the one chance, and won. I do not expect you to believe that the impostor was movedby any other consideration in contracting her second marriage thanthe wish to seek the more exalted sphere of society and influencewhich Fate had hitherto denied her. You would sneer were I to hint, however remotely, at a regard for her high-born suitor the dashing, but dissipated officer had never awakened--"

Mr. Aylett lifted his hand, smiling more evilly than before. 

"Excuse the interruption! but after your statement of the fact thatsuch sentimental asseverations would be futile, you waste time inrecapitulating the loves of the lady aforementioned, and we inhearing them. I think I express the opinion of the audience--fit, but few--when I say that we require no other evidence than thatafforded by the story I have told of Mrs. Lennox's susceptibilityand capacity for affection. We are willing to take for granted thatthe latter was illimitable. "

"As you like!" idly tapping the nails of her left hand with theknife. "Is there anything else pertaining to this history into whichyou would like to inquire?"

It was a sight to curdle the blood about one's heart, this duelbetween husband and wife, with double-edged blades, wreathed withflowers. Mr. Aylett's attitude of lazy indifference was not exceededby Clara's proud languor. He laughed a little at the last question. 

"I have speculated somewhat--having nothing else in particular toengage my mind on my way home--upon the point I named just now, andupon one other akin to it. All that the novel needs to round it offneatly is an encounter between the real and the quasi consorts. Icannot specify them by name, in consequence of the uncertainty Ihave mentioned. One was a bona-fide husband--the other a bogusarticle, let New York divorce laws decide what they will, providedalways that the fallen Julius had not bidden farewell to this lowerearth before his loyal Louise plighted her faith to her Southerngallant. Death is the Alexander of the universe. There is no retyingthe knots he has cut. "

From the pertinacity with which he returned to the question onecould discern his actual anxiety to have it settled. Mabelunderstood that the only salve of possible application to hisoutraged pride and love was the discovery that Clara had been reallya widow when he wedded her. The divorce and subsequent deceptionwere sins of heinous dye against his ideas of respectability andunspotted honor, but he would never forgive the woman who had hadtwo living husbands, freed from the former though she was by a legalfiction. 

No one saw this more clearly than did she whose fate trembled uponthe next words she should utter. With all her hardihood, shehesitated to reply. Luxury, wealth, and station were on one side;degradation and poverty on the other. The solitary hope ofreinstatement in the affection, if not the esteem, of him she lovedtruly as it was in her to love anything beside herself, was arrayedagainst the certainty of alienation and the tearful odds ofignominious banishment. 

Her answer, under the presure of the warring emotions, was asemitone lower, and less distinctly enunciated than those that hadgone before it. 

"The denouement you propose for your romance is impracticable. Julius Lennox died before the date of the second marriage. "

Herbert drew himself to a sitting posture by clutching the back ofthe lounge. His red eyes and tumbled hair made him look more like amad than a sick man. 

"In the name of Heaven, " he demanded hoarsely, "have we not hadenough lies, every one of which has been a blunder, and a fatal one?I told you, years ago, that the scene of this evening was a merequestion of time; that, without a miracle, an edifice founded uponiniquity and cemented by falsehood must crush you before you couldlay the top-stone. You would not be warned--you held on your waywithout hesitation or compunction, and now you would add to sinfatuity. Do you suppose that after what your husband has learned ofyour untruthfulness he will accept your assertion on any subjectwithout inquiry? And, how many in your own family and out ofit--although these may not know you by the name you now bear--arecognizant of the fact that Julius Lennox was alive for almostfifteen months after you became Mrs. Aylett?"

Mabel's arm was about his neck, her hand upon his mouth. 

"No more! no more! if you love me!" she whispered in an agony. "Should he guess all, he would murder her!"

"You are prepared to certify that he is dead NOW, are you, Mr. Dorrance?" queried Winston, suspicious of this by-play. 

"I am!" sulkily. 

"It is a pity!" was the ambiguous rejoinder. 

Something clicked upon the hearth. It was the fragments of the toystiletto, broken by an uncontrollable twitch of the small fingersthat held it. 

Then Mrs. Aylett arose, pale as a ghost, but unquailing in eye ormien. 

"May I know your lordship's pleasure respecting your cast-offminion?"

"In the morning, yes!" glancing up disdainfully. "Meantime, let mewish you 'good-night' and happy dreams. "

CHAPTER XX. 

INDIAN SUMMER. 

"NO, no! my dear!" said Mrs. Sutton, earnestly. "I am shocked andastonished that you should ever have labored under such a delusion. Frederic told me the story, and a dreadful one it was, the day oldMrs. Tazewell was buried. Wasn't it wonderful that he never knewwhom Winston had married until he saw her leaning upon his arm inthe graveyard? He recognized Mr. Dorrance in the house, but supposedhim to be a visitor at Ridgeley and a relative of Mrs. Aylett, having heard that her maiden name was Dorrance. As to his being yourhusband, it did not at first occur to him, so bewildered was he byyour meeting and the thoughts awakened by it. But at sight of HERthe truth rushed over him, nearly depriving him of his wits. He soongot out of me all that I knew, and by putting this and thattogether, we made out the mystery. I was so grieved and indignantand horrified that I was for sending him forthwith to Winston, thathe might clear himself of the shocking charges they had preferredagainst him, by exposing the motives of his accusers. But he wasstubborn and independent. 'It can do no good now, ' he said. 'Fifteenyears ago this discovery would have been my temporal salvation. AndDorrance is Mabel's husband. I cannot touch him without woundingher. ' I could not reconcile this mode of reasoning with myconscience. If wrong had been done, it ought to be righted. I didnot sleep a wink all night. I wept over my noble, generous, slandered boy, and over you, my darling! but my chief thought wasanger at the shameless depravity, the cold-blooded cruelty of thebrazen-faced adventuress who sat in your angel mother's place. Foraught Frederic or I knew, her real husband was still alive. He hadnever heard of the divorce, you see, and the circumstance of hermarrying Winston under her maiden name looked black. 

"Well! I pondered upon the horrible affair until I could hold mypeace no longer. Frederic and Florence went home with Mary Trentnext morning, and knowing that Winston must pass the upper gate onhis way to court, I put on my bonnet soon after breakfast, andstrolled in that direction. By and by he rode up, stopped his horse, and began to talk so sociably that before I quite knew what I wasdoing, I was in the middle of my story. I wonder now how I did it, but I was excited, and he listened so patiently, questioned soquietly, that I did not realize, for several hours afterward, what ablaze I must have kindled in his heart and home, whether he believedme or not. The next thing I heard was not, as I expected, that heand his wife had quarrelled, or that he was going to challengeFrederic for having belied him, but that poor Dorrance was very illwith some affection of the brain. It was not until a yearlater--just after his death--that people began to talk about thestrange carryings-on at Ridgeley; how Mr. And Mrs. Aylett occupiedseparate apartments, and never sat, or walked, or rode together, orspoke to one another, even at table, unless there were visitorspresent. Nobody could imagine what caused the estrangement, and forthe sake of the family honor I guarded my tongue. She must be awretched woman, if all of this be true. She is breaking fast underit, in spite of her pride and skill in concealment. I ought not topity her when I remember how wicked she has been; but there is alook in her eye when she is not laughing or talking that gives methe heart-ache. "

"She is very unhappy!" replied Mabel, sighing. "And so, I doubt not, is Winston, although he will not own it, and affects to ignore thefact of her failing health and spirits. It is one of these miserablydelicate family complications with which the nearest of kin cannotmeddle. They are very kind to me, and I think my visits have been acomfort to Clara. The solitude of the great house is a terribletrial to one so fond of company. For days together sometimes shedoes not exchange a word with anybody except the servants. It is adreary, wretched evening of an ambitious life. I ventured to tellWinston, last week, that this wonld probably be my last visit toRidgeley, since I was to be married next month. 

"To Mr. Chilton, I suppose?" he said. 

I answered, "Yes!"

"You must be almost forty, " he next remarked. "You have wornpassably well, but you are no longer young. "

"I am thirty-seven!" said I. 

"Well!" he answered. "Yon are certainly old enough to know your ownbusiness best. "

"That was all that passed. But I was glad to remember, as I lookedat his whitening hair and bowed shoulder, that Frederic had not--asI was foolish enough to suppose for a while--told him the story thathad blighted his life. Not that I could have blamed him had he donethis. He had endured so much obloquy, suffered so keenly and solong, that almost any retaliatory measure would have beenpardonable. "

Herbert Dorrance's widow was, as had been said, on a farewell visitto her native State, and after spending a week at Ridgeley wasconcluding a pleasanter sojourn of the same length at WilliamSutton's. In another month her home in Philadelphia was to be therefuge of her aunt's declining years--a prospect that delighted heras much as it afflicted those among whom this most benevolent andlovable of match-makers had dwelt during Mabel's first marriage. 

The marriage it was now her constant purpose to forget--not adifficult task in the happiness that diffused an Indian summer glowover her maturity of years and heart. After Herbert's death she hadcontinued to reside in Albany, devoting herself--so soon as sherecovered from the fatigue of mind and body consequent upon hersevere and protracted duties as nurse--to the scarcely less painfulwork of attending his mother, who had contracted the seeds ofconsumption in the bleak sea-air of Boston. Grateful for an abode inthe house of one who performed a daughter's part to her when her ownchildren were content to commit her to the care of hirelings, theold lady lingered six months, and died, blessing her benefactressand engaging, in singleness of belief in the affection his wife hadborne him, "to tell Herbert how good she had been to his mother. "

None of the Dorrances could wag a tongue against theirsister-in-law, when, at the expiration of her year of widowhood, shewrote to them, to announce her "re-engagement" to Frederic Chilton. She had been a faithful wife to their brother in sickness andimbecility; a ministering angel to their parent, and there was nowno tie to bind her to their interest. They had a way of taking careof themselves, and it was not surprising if she had learned it. 

They behaved charmingly--this pair of elderly lovers--said the youngSuttons when Mr. Chilton arrived to escort his affianced back toAlbany on the day succeeding the conversation from which I havetaken the foregoing extracts, while Aunt Rachel's deaf old face wasone beam of gratification. 

"All my matches turn out well in the long run!" she boasted, withmodest exultation. "I don't undertake the management of them, unlessI am very sure that they are already projected in Heaven. And whenthey are, my loves, a legion of evil spirits or, what is just asbad, of wicked men and women, cannot hinder everything from comingright at last. "

While she was relating, in the same sanguinely pious spirit, thetales that most entrance young girls, and at which their seniorssmile in cynicism, or in tender recollection, as their own liveshave contradicted or verified her theory of love's teachings andlove's omnipotence, Frederic and Mabel, forgetting time and care, separation and sorrow, in the calm delight of reunion, werestrolling upon the piazza in the starlight of a perfect Juneevening. 

They stopped talking by tacit consent, by and by, to listen to AmySutton, a girl of eighteen, the vocalist of the flock, who wastesting her voice and proficiency in reading music at sight bytrying one after another of a volume of old songs which belonged toher mother. 

This was the verse that enchained the promenaders' attention:

 "But still thy name, thy blessed name, My lonely bosom fills; Like an echo that hath lost itself Among the distant hills. That still, with melancholy note, Keeps faintly lingering on, When the joyous sound that woke it first Is gone--forever gone!"

"It is seventeen years since we heard it together, dearest!" saidFrederic, bending to kiss the tear-laden eyes. "And I can say to younow, what I did not, while poor Rosa lived, own to myself--that, tryto hush it though I did, in all that time the lost echo was neverstill. "

Her answer was prompt, and the sweeter for the blent sigh and smilewhich were her tribute to the Past, and greeting to the Future:

"An echo no longer, but a continuous strain of of heart music!"

THE END.