CHAPTER II. See how yon flaming herald treads She rends the clinging sea, That flies before the roaring wind Beneath her hissing lee. With clashing wheel and lifting keel And smoking torch on high, When winds are loud and billows reel, She thunders foaming by; When seas are silent and serene With even beam she glides, The sunshine glimmering through the green That skirts her gleaming sides. O. W. HOLMES. MAX's salutation when he returned from Castleton was, "Well, little Molly, are you getting ready to go with me to Ole Virginny?" And then, as if to relieve himself of an embarrassment, he seized upon one of our little brothers who was running through the drawing-room, and sang him "The sea was so broad and the land was so narrow, He was forced to bring his wife home in a wheel-barrow." "When do you talk of going, Max ?” said I. "Not until the spring," he answered. "There will be business arrangements to attend to here; besides which, winter is hardly the time to be in that part of America. They never shut a door my father says, in 'ole Virginny. I shall apply for six months leave of absence from next March, and I hope," he added seriously, "that you intend to accompany me." "I don't know," said I in the objective case. "It is a long journey, and I feel very little interest in Virginia. I hardly know enough of our relations over the Ridge to invest them with any personality." "Yes-but my dear child travelling will do you good. I have been talking with the governor about it." And then passing his arm about my waist, "my dear, little sister," said he, “I think about your trouble a great deal, for as you know, Molly," and his voice became pretty serious, "I had a touch of the same fever several years ago myself, about Lady Ellen MacIntyre." "Yes, Max-and since you profess to have been cured of that, you never seem to me quite the dear fellow that you used to be. You make fun of women. You never seem to trust us, or to think we are sincere, or ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬” "It is the experience of life, Molly. I was glad when I met Lady Ellen at court last spring, that Colin Nasmyth and not I had married that showy, heartless woman. You think me a harum-scarum, flirting sort of fellow-as I am-but there are better things in me which a good wife might bring out. I should be a worse man, too, if I had not had a good sister. There are plenty of quiet moments when I sigh for better things, and feel," (he turned his face away and his voice fell to a whisper) "that I should like to have a dear, little, good homekeeping wifesomebody who would love me, somebody it was my duty to love." "I love you dearly-darling Max," said I. Max smiled. "I want to be loved best," he said. "People marry and alter, and go away, and throw you over, and there is no stability for a man except in the affections of his own home." Thus saying, he took up a ball of sewing cotton, stuck the points of my scissors through it, and cut several yards of it with deliberate care and measurement into useless shreds. "I will tell you who I think was quite sincere "he said at length"that is Veronica. Somehow nobody can go to Castleton without missing her. Her pleasant laugh, and pretty ways were like the sunshine of the place. The people about there are for ever telling me of all her little kindnesses-and Miss Alicia (she is a good soul, Miss Alicia) used to talk to me of her. There was a bundle of her letters written to cousin Lomax, as dear, pretty, womanly little letters as you could see-with plenty of good sense in them. They seemed to bring her back to me as in old times, with her pleasant, quick way of doubling upon you with some sauciness, when she fancied she had been showing too much feeling. I took the little bundle down to the old boat, and pushed out into the pond and looked them over. The old swannies came sailing round the boat as if they thought she ought to be there too, and I could not help promising the old couple that I would do my best to bring her back again. Somehow the old place got a more inhabited look after I imagined her return there. I cannot tell you," he went on to say, “how glad I am that I feel thus about it. I would not have sold myself to any woman I did not like, even to own Castleton; and now I will confess to you that if cousin Lomax had left me the estate without restriction, I should have gone to Virginia and offered myself to Veronica." After a pause, and the destruction of more thread, “you are pretty sure she used to like me, Molly ?" said he. "I am quite sure of it, dear Max-I could give you twenty proofs of her regard for you.” "She acted a very generous part," said he. "It was a noble thing of her to go away, especially if she cared so much for such a good-for-nothing scamp as me-poor little soul! Do you think that I can win her now?" And he threw a glance into the mirror at his own handsome face and soldierly figure. "Does she often write to you, Molly?" "Not very often-and her letters are quite short. She is living at Clairmont with aunt Edmonia." "You field?"" said Max. you don't think there are 'other Richmonds in the "You do not think she favors any other lover ?” "I cannot think she does. There is no indication in her letters that she cares for any one in Virginia." "Well," said Max, smiling, "cousin Lomax's earnest wishes for our marriage almost defeated their own object. And I wish he had not tied us down. The will has made quite a sensation in the parish. They all know that I am going to Virginia. Won't the old chimes ring out a merry peal the day I bring her back there ?” Max spent a good deal of the winter at Castleton. Not as its proprietor, but as agent of the executors of the will, Governor Tyrell and our father. Still he felt himself the master of the place, and everybody considered him so. I was with him part of the winter. He gave up hunting and his boisterous tastes, and liked nothing so well as talking to me, or to kind, prosy Miss Alicia, about Veronica. He went over all the old rides and walks they used to take together. The trees were leafless, and the ploughed fields bare. "I'll tell you what, Molly," said he, "I have a great mind to ask her to be married in the summer, and then she will come back here when the place is in its beauty. Can I persuade her to be married in July, do you suppose, or will the wedding finery take too much preparation ?" The old hound was alive, and Max used to go and pat it for her sake, for it never left the stable after she went away. He set me to work in the village to find out her old pensioners. The women dropped courtesies as we went through the hamlet, and made bold to ask "when Mrs. Mandeville might be expected at the Hall." Of Max laughed out heartily the first time that this was said to him, and gave the old woman who said it half a crown. course, after that he was constantly subject to the inquiry. The old gardener had an order to get his grounds trimmed up, and have every thing as Miss Veronica liked it by the beginning of the summer. He was constantly touching his hat to Max, and saying this or that was his "lady's fancy." And Max had confidential consultations with him about the tastes of Veronica. "Take a lesson from me Moll," he said, when he found me crying by myself one day. "A man does not know what is good for him. I can never be thankful enough that I am going to marry a quiet good wife, whom every body loves, rather than my old flame Lady Ellen. She never would have liked a country life, and is leading her husband a pretty dance of fashion." At last the spring opened. My heart ached at the thought of setting the Atlantic between myself and him who occupied my thoughts, but Max was in the highest spirits-made light of the perils of the deep, and rallied me. I had several letters from Mr. Howard. I did not know but that I ought to send them back to him, and carried them hon |