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the annual fever, and has caught it! He has been bit by a raging reformer, and gone rabid! Not the first hot-headed young southerner sent to a northern college who has fallen into the same series of fevers. But they all come safely through it! When they find out that to free their slaves means just to empty their pockets, and go to work with their own hands or brains, you have no idea how refrigerating the effect. Don't fear for Mr. Sutherland. He will be brought beautifully out of it! Only note it! he will never send a son of his to be educated at a northern college. Come, cheer up, my love, and never mind my laughing. Really it is legitimate food for laughter! Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!"

"Oh, don't! Only think of it, even at its best! Here, for weeks past, he has been mingling freely with these sort of persons-mixing in their assemblies, where people of all colours and castes meet on equal terms, in a stifling crowd-oh, Queen of Heaven! it is a ruinous dishonour-an unspeakable insult he has cast upon me, his betrothed!" she exclaimed, rising with all the proud and passionate energy of deep and strong conviction.

. And again Mrs. Vivian gave way to a peal of silvery laughter, exclaiming, "Why, you simple maiden gentlemen will do such odd things, because you see they (poets excepted) have no instincts-not even any original ideas of refinement. But be comforted! He comes to us by sea, and will have passed through several hundred miles of salt sea wind before he reaches your fragrant boudoir."

"Do not pursue this subject! Do not, Valeria! Do

not press it upon me so! It wrongs, it injures meI feel it does!" said India, with energetic earnestness.

"I never saw you so deeply and strongly moved before-nonsense! But indeed I must have my laugh out with somebody! It is, besides, too good to keep -this ludicrous secret! Ah, here comes Mr. Bolling, with Uncle Clement in his wake, no doubt, for he went to fetch him! I must tell Uncle Clement of his son-in-law's conversation or-die.

"Uncle, Uncle Clement! what do you think has happened to Mark? Listen," exclaimed the vivacious lady, running off with the letter. Miss Sutherland sprang and caught her hand, and, pale as death, cried out, "On your life, Valeria-on your soul! You do not know my father; he abhors those sects with an exterminating fury of hatred! Give me the letter! Nay, now by your honour, Valeria! It was a sacred confidence. Give me the letter !" and she wrested the contended paper away from the giddy, laughing, little lady.

"Heyday! What the mischief is all this? A regular romp or wrestle? Let me put down my hat, and I'll stand by and see fair play," exclaimed Mr. Bolling, who had just entered.

Blushing with anger at having suffered herself to be surprised out of her usual repose of manner, Miss Sutherland sat down in silent dignity, while Mrs. Vivian, still laughing, inquired, "Where is uncle?"

"Where? Yes! 'Echo answers where?' He has not been home to breakfast nor dinner, and now I suppose he'll not be here to supper. I went down to the mill to bring him home to supper; he was not there! Guess where he was? Gone over the other

side of the river, to preside at the lynching of an incendiary. Upon my sacred word and honour!" exclaimed Uncle Billy, growing crimson in the face, "the most cruel, unjust, unwarrantable proceeding I ever heard of in all my life; though, to be perfectly fair, I must say it serves the fellow exactly right."

"Apropos—what did I tell you, Valeria?" said Miss Sutherland, in a low voice.

“And, now, what is this mighty mystery that must be concealed from Clement?”

Mrs. Vivian and Miss Sutherland exchanged glances, and the latter replied: "It is a letter from Mr. Sutherland, sir, that concerns myself alone, and I do not choose to make its contents public, even at the suggestion of my dear esteemed friend here."

"Ah! Umph-hum! Yes! But now, my dear child, let me say one word. Young people are foolish, and need to be counselled by the wisdom of age. Observe, therefore, what I say, and be guided by my advice. There is no circumstance or combination of circumstances whatever, that will justify you in withholding any secret from your father; nevertheless, I am bound to say that nothing under the sun could excuse you in betraying, even to him, the confidence of your betrothed husband. Now, I hope you understand your duty! At least, you have my advice!" said Uncle Billy, wiping his head, after which he placed his handkerchief in his straw hat, seated himself, and put the hat upon the carpet between his feet —all with a look of great self-satisfaction.

"At least the advice is very practical !" said an ironical voice behind him. All turned to see Mr. Sutherland the elder, who had silently entered. He

was of an unusually tall, attenuated form, with a yellow, bilious, cadaverous face, whetted to the keenest edge by care and rapacity, and surrounded by hair and whiskers so long and bristling as to give quite a ferocious aspect to a set of features that without them would have looked merely cunning. He strode into the midst of the circle, and standing before his daughter, demanded in an authoritative tone, "Give me that letter, Miss Sutherland!" She turned deadly pale, but without an instant's hesitation arose to her feet, placed the letter in her bosom, and stood fronting him.

Seeing that the matter was about to take a very serious turn, Mrs. Vivian playfully interfered, by nestling her soft little hand into the great bony one of the planter, and saying, with her bewitching smile, "Ah, then, Mr. Sutherland, let young people alone. Do not rifle a young girl's little mysteries. Remember when you were youthful-it was not so long ago but what you can remember, I am sure," she said with an arch glance. "And when you used to write sweet nonsense to one beautiful Cecile, her mother, how would you have liked it if the practical commercial eyes of good Monsieur Dumoulins had read your letters? Come! give me your arm to supper; we have waited for you half an hour;" and the lively lady slipped her arm into his; and Mr. Sutherland with the very ill grace of a bear led captive, suffered himself to be carried off. Mr. Billy Bolling, with a flourishing bow, gave his hand to Miss Sutherland, and Paul Sutherland led Rosalie.

The apartment was very pleasant. The inner shutters of wire gauze, that were closed against the mos

quitoes, did not exclude the fresh and fragrant evening breeze that fanned the room. The elegant tea-table stood in the midst, and the whole was illumined by light subdued through shades of ground glass-not figured-but plain, and diffusing a soft, clear, even radiance. They sat down to the table, and coffee and tea were served by waiters from the sideboard. To dispel the last shades of suspicion and discontent from the mind of Mr. Sutherland, Mrs. Vivian remarked: "We are to have Mr. Mark Sutherland home in a very few days, if I understand aright. N'est ce pas, chere Indie?" Miss Sutherland only bowed, and the conversation turned upon their approaching voyage to Europe.

CHAPTER IV.

MRS. SUTHERLAND.

On her cheek the autumn flush
Deeply ripens; such a blush
In the midst of brown was born,
Like red poppies grown with corn.
Round her eyes her tresses lay-
Which are blackest, none can say;

But long lashes veil a light

That had else been all too bright.-Hood.

On the opposite side of the Pearl from Cashmere, and a little further down the river, and back from its banks, in a small vale embosomed in hills, was Silentshades, the home of Mark Sutherland. The homestead was the same that had been built by his father, upon first laying out the plantation. The house was very

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