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CHAPTER FIRST.

PRELIMINARY.

MR. ALTHORP, in the shade of his own luxuriant fruit-trees, sat on a rustic bench crowning the brow of a gently sloping ascent, a hundred rods or so from the road running past his house, and commanding a view of many a well-tilled and well-wooded acre, forming a portion of the valuable inheritance that had fallen to him at his father's decease. It was an estate well worth a word of description. A large, low, rambling cottage, with spacious sleeping-rooms and ample bathing appliances on the first floor, stood not many feet back from the street which was shaded on either side by regular rows of majes. tic old elms. In the garden were grape trellises, latticed arbors, and cosy little nooks screened by creepers, all of which had been planned by the mother of the present proprietor, and were by him tenderly cherished for the sake of one whose memory lay deeply buried in his heart of hearts. From his position he could also obtain a view over wavy corn-field and verdant meadow stretching back in the distance, of the high, rocky ledge where he gave employment, in winter, to scores of day-laborers, who would otherwise have been idle, in blasting and carting stone.

Still another change of prospect was at his command; for by turning his head, he could overlook his neighbor Mosby's garden, which opportunity he occasionally improved as Miss Sallie Mosby, who was modest and graceful of bearing, with an abundance of soft chestnut-brown hair, and the clear bloom of youth and health on her cheek, tended her own flower borders; and thereby hangs a tale. But at the

time of which I am writing, Mr. Althorp was not looking in his neighbors' direction, nor had they the remotest connection with his thoughts. A line regarding his personal appearance may not be amiss.

He was of average height, broadchested, deep-shouldered, having a wellknit figure; bearing lightly the thirty years he had seen of life. His face was full, but not heavy of feature; the forehead broad, projecting somewhat in the region of what phrenologists call the perceptive faculties; the nose aquiline; the hair jet black; the lips pleasantly curved, but closing firmly; and eyes often bright with humor, but quite capable of darkening into sternness or of flashing with resentment. Judging from physiognomy, one might have predicted that, as impulse swayed, he would be a warm friend, or, what Johnson liked, ‘a good hater.'

Not a glimpse of the fair, smiling landscape, outstretched before him did Mr. Althorp catch. In his hand he held one of the daily papers, and his gaze was riveted on a single name in a list occupying several columns; that name was his own - he was a drafted man. I can tell you of what he was thinking, as well as at what he was looking; for we imaginative clairvoyants, by some subtle process which we can neither understand ourselves nor explain or impart to another, find our way to many a hidden thought its owner still deems secure in his own possession.

Thus cogitated our conscript:

'When that first shot fired at Sumter roused Northern patriotism to boiling heat, I joined a drill club, made arrangements with a farmer tenant of

mine to carry on the place, and thought to have enlisted long ago; but all this political dust of 'military necessity' so persistently blown in our eyes has blurred my vision since then. If we cannot put down a rebellion against the Constitution and those sworn to the faithful administration thereof, without crushing out the State Rights guaranteed by the Constitution we are fighting to sustain, why, I do n't exactly see my way clear, and I'm not the man to take a leap in the dark. They may take my three hundred, but the proprietor of this place they don't take on this tack. Not but that I am as much in favor of abolition as any one else, if it could be effected by means not calculated to make the remedy worse than the disease. As for me, the succor and salvation of my whole country is a consummation more devoutly to be desired than the social elevation of any moiety of it, of whatever shade, or from whatever clime. Neither am I afraid to brave the perils of camp and battle-field; nor unwilling to risk my life in defence of that of the nation, if I could but be fully assured that such risk would accrue to my country's good.

'As it is, if a second draft comes as come I suppose it must-with no commutation clause by way of mitigation, and John Peter Althorp's name once more appears on the list, I shall put a bold front on the matter and march off to 'involuntary servitude' with as firm a determination to do my duty as was shown by the poor laborers I used to hire when forced to leave, nearly destitute, the young families who shall not suffer from actual want while my income so far exceeds my expenditure as at present.'

The sound of music caused him to pause in his reflections and turn his head in the direction whence floated up to him the not unpleasing melody. Another instant, and he had thrown his legs over the bench, thus changing his position so as to gain an uninterrupted view of his neighbor's premises,

where an organ-grinder at the rear of the house was briskly grinding out the 'Polka Erlanger;' while on the back verandah Miss Sallie was playfully, and, truth to speak, not very gracefully polking with a younger brother whose head scarcely reached to her shoulder. The shade instantly lightened from Mr. Althorp's brow, and finally a smile of amusement curled his lip as he noted the comical movements necessitated by the striking disparity in height of the ill-assorted couple.

'I used to foot it lightly to music myself when I was a gay young fellow with a heart as light as my heels,' thought he, 'and am really tempted to practise my steps again if the lady is agreeable.'

Without a moment's pause for consideration, he tossed his paper aside, made his way to the high board fence separating the two gardens, swung himself over it by the aid of an apple-tree, and passing behind the grape trellis and row of tall syringa-bushes, suddenly presented himself to Miss Sallie's astonished vision.

'O Mr. Althorp! I had not the least idea I was making an exhibition of myself for your amusement,' she cried, reddening violently and stopping short in the midst of an evolution.

'I was so much charmed with the exhibition, Miss Mosby, that I entreat the favor of bearing a part in it., If you are not engaged to a single partner for every dance, will you do me the honor of accepting my hand for the next one?' he rejoined with mock-heroic gallantry.

She retorted by an assent couched in high-flown phraseology; but scarcely a single turn had they taken when the perverse organ took also a turn, and dropping the polka, started off on that lugubrious strain: John Brown is marching on.'

'Absurd!' said Mr. Althorp.

'Vexatious!' returned his would-be partner; and there was something in the choice of the word, and in the tone

with which it was pronounced, that pleased him, he scarcely knew why. He turned to the organ-grinder. 'Can't you put a stop to John Brown's marching on, and go back to the polka?'

which it would shame my manhood to complain. Pin-pricks are dangerous if long enough continued; at least I do not wish to be the subject of any experiment tending in that direction. 'There is brother Parkhurst's wife;

suppose she is, for she does dress su

'I will fix the slides to suit you, Sir.' Mr. Althorp tossed a diminutive greenback to the speaker, and soon had the gratification of ascertaining, from actual experience, that he could foot it to music with as much buoyancy and spirit as when his heart was burdened with fewer sad memories, his head with fewer cares, than now.

Strange to relate, although he left his companion with gayest mien, mere compliments, light, meaningless words, grown stale through much vain repetition, on his lips, Mr. Althorp went home with eyes bent on the ground in deeply, even seriously thoughtful mood.

Lighting a cigar, he betook himself therewith to a closely screened arbor, and as the airy smoke-wreaths curled above his head, grew meditative, and thus communed with himself:

'I must have something more than good looks, attractive demeanor, graceful accomplishments, and cultivated tastes, to win me from my solitary bachelor life. It is n't all fair sailing through this world; and though dancing is well enough when the sea is smooth and the skies are bright, there is something nobler and grander to be done when tempests rise and billows roar, and only the steady eye, firm hand, and strong heart can safely pilot life's boat. There is no denying the fact that it is lonely enough here, sometimes, with all these great empty rooms where I used to play with my brothers when we were boys here together; but there are worse trials than being lonely; I might be wearied, and worried, and worn into my grave with little scratches of tongue and temper of

performance of difficult and intricate passages in music, although purely mechanical, is something marvellous in its way. But it is as autocrat in matters of taste relating to dress and household embellishment that she reigns supreme, with no rival near the throne. No one can appreciate better than herself that harmony of coloring which she declares the first essential to an elegant toilette. Neither could any one select a set of jewelry with rarer skill or less regard to expense. She can set off an open barouche with the haughtiest grace and stateliest air of any lady amongst my acquaintance. Parkhurst looks proud of her, but I notice that he never shares her drives.

'I wonder if she was ever in her own kitchen? I never saw her there, as much time as I have spent in the house. As for the children, she took the greatest pains to ascertain that their nursery-girl and French governess were fully competent to the discharge of their several duties, before employing them; so she has been faithful to her trust so far as the little folks are concerned.

'I do n't believe she has the remotest conception of what rational conversation is like. Talk of dress, show, opera, or equipage, and she is all interest and animation; but start any other topic, and it is impossible to drag her up from the depths of languid indifference into which she is sure to sink.

'When Parkhurst met with that heavy loss by the pirates burning a ship whose cargo was uninsured, owing to exorbitant rates created by the warrisk, it was to me he came for sympathy. "How does Catherine bear the loss?' I asked.

he.

''How happens that?' I persisted.

There is no use in troubling her about matters over which she has no control, and in which she could feel no possible interest.'

''But,' I remonstrated, 'do you never talk over matters between yourselves that strictly concern your own personal interests, and affect hers as a matter of course?'

'I don't like to hear women chattering about what they can't understand, and what does n't come at all within their limited sphere of action,' he replied so testily, and with such a look of annoyance, that I was nearly sure I had hit a sore place in his heart of which he was quite likely himself unaware, and have never ventured near the subject since.

Then again, when he was so dangerously ill, a few weeks ago, with diphtheria, it was for me he sent, much to my surprise; for I thought nursing belonged as much to woman's 'limited sphere of action' as dressing, driving, flirting, or gossiping. It was ten in the evening when I reached the house, and found my superb sister-in-law in the drawing-room, performing the duties of hostess, with elegant composure, for the entertainment of invited guests, while a paid attendant acted as nurse up-stairs. I turned him out of the room, and sat all night by Parkhurst's bedside, holding his hot hands in mine, finding a cool place for his head on the pillow as he tossed restlessly from one unquiet position to another, wiping from his face the heavy drops wrung forth by hard pain, and administering the minute but powerful doses that were to be life or death to him. He had been unable to speak, even in a whisper, for twenty-four hours; and the doctor had said, on leaving him just before my arrival, that morning would decide whether he was to sink or rally.

'It was a little past eleven when Catherine entered the chamber, rust

ry, to bid her husband 'Good-night,' and express the hope that he might be more comfortable before morning. 'There is no use in my sitting up,' she said; 'for, as you see, he could not speak to me if I did.' So she went calmly away to seek the rest she doubtless needed after the fatigues of the evening. I do not know what Parkhurst thought of the cool, unmoved manner with which she left him in this sore crisis of his life-and-death struggle; but I know what I did. It was that the yoke matrimonial, stripped of all sweet affections, must be a very galling sort of appendage, and one into which I would be precious careful my neck didn't slip unawares.

'So, Miss Mosby, though I can't deny that your looks please me, and that I like your appearance very much, I shall watch you narrowly, and study your character more closely than I have yet had an opportunity of doing, before venturing on any step likely to commit myself.

'With all your fair seeming, you may, for aught I know to the contrary, have a will and a temper of your own, like my brother Fred's wife, who rules her household thriftily, I grant, but with a high hand. I shall not forget, in a hurry, how that, when he sent her out a richly carved book-case of unpolished walnut as a birth-day gift, she peremptorily ordered its return by express, following herself to select one of a different design, and purchasing books of the size requisite for exactly filling the shelves with their intervening spaces.

'Poor Fred! he was the most generous-hearted, open-handed one amongst us; and if his wife had a particle of that feeling and tenderness usually attributed to those whom, by courtesy, we style the 'gentler sex,' she would make an adequate return for the lavish affection he wastes on her, instead of using it, as she does, to deprive him of the right which every man has, or should have, of ruling his own house

hold. He has become so accustomed, now, to the habit of giving up his own way, for the sake of keeping peace in the family, that he no longer feels the shackles on his will, and has no idea that I nearly call him a pitiable poltroon in my heart, when I see him walking about his own spacious rooms not an article in them of his choice or selection with an air as meek and subdued as though he were there on sufferance, instead of being the proper and rightful master of both house and pertainments. 'Propose to him any plan, from an improvement on his place to a day's fishing, and you may be sure of his answer: 'I will speak to Augusta, and see what she thinks about it.' That sort of life may answer for Fred, but it would n't answer for me. Before submitting to the domination of any woman, I should quarrel with her fiercely, spite of fate and all the proprieties; and, strong as I am, quarrelling does n't agree with my digestion. I would rather dwell on the house-top than in a selfperpetuating family jar, and shall look warily to my ways before risking any such mischance.'

Mr. Althorp's self-communings were brought to an abrupt termination by the approach of one of his farm-laborers with an inquiry as to the expediency of ploughing up the rye-field and seeding it down to grass; so the proprietor of Rock Hill put away from him all vain imaginings, with the stump of his cigar, and joining the man on his return to the field in question, was soon deep in the discussion of the relative value of clover, red-top, and herds-grass as fodder for different varieties of stock.

CHAPTER SECOND.

EAVES DROPPING.

On the morning succeeding the day which had brought to Mr. Althorp such sage reflections and cautious resolves on subjects matrimonial, as he was superintending the rolling of a serpentine walk winding from a shaded porch to an

arbor near his own and neighbor's dividing line, the latter called out: 'I do wish, Althorp, you would step over here a minute, and give me a word of advice, as you are a more practised gardener than I can pretend to be.'

'What has gone wrong now?' asked the person addressed on joining the speaker.

'Do look at these vines; not a cucumber have I had the whole season excepting what I have brought out of town with me. Yellow stalks and wilted leaves; what is the matter with them that they grow no better?'

'Bugs on the leaves and worms at the roots; put on wood ashes; I will send you down enough to fix those vermin.' 'Thank you; but where do you get them?'

'Out of my own fireplace, to be sure.' 'I thought you used a furnace and range.'

'So I do; but in my own private sitting-room I like a bright wood fire, the blaze leaps up the chimney in such a jolly, wide-awake fashion; it's company for me.'

'There's the whistle at the depot above,' cried Mr. Mosby; and I must run or I shall miss the train, which would never do, for I promised to meet a customer in town at eight.'

The speaker just succeeded in catching the train, and Mr. Althorp was about to retrace his steps, when the sound of Miss Mosby's voice made him pause and part the branches of a trellised vine to get a peep at her. She stood in the back-door [speaking to a servant-girl, their only domestic, who sat on the upper step, paring apples. Screened by the row of tall syringas, he drew nearer that he might hear what she was saying. Yes; the high-toned, fastidious, excellently principled John Peter actually condescended, and that persistently, of deliberate purpose, to act the part of eavesdropper and spy, as if that barbarous old maxim, 'All is fair in love and war,' had not become obsolete ages ago.