If Mrs. Sutton had raised horrified eyes and despairing hands upon

learning the date of her nephew's proposed marriage, it was because

she miscalculated his executive abilities, and the energy she had

never until now seen fairly put forth. Within three days after his

return, the homestead was alive with masons, carpenters, painters,

and upholsterers, engaged by the prompt bridegroom on his passage

through Richmond; and so explicit were his orders as to the minutest

detail of the work appointed to each, that he could safely leave the

scene of action at the time appointed for the flying trip northward,

to which he had referred in his dialogue with Mabel on the afternoon

of his arrival.

The party of visitors had emigrated to other regions, a couple of

days after Frederic Chilton's departure, with the exception of Rosa

Tazewell, who accepted Mabel's invitation to prolong her sojourn,

the more willingly since she "flattered herself she could be of use

in the general upheaving of the ancient foundations, and

establishment of the new. If there was one thing she enjoyed above

another, it was a tremendous bustle--a lively revolution."

She made her boast of personal utility good by installing herself

forthwith as Mrs. Sutton's aid-de-camp, and rendering herself so far

indispensable in the work of reconstruction that Mr. Aylett deigned

to ask her not to desert her post in his absence.

"Yours is the genius of renovation, Miss Rosa," the potentate was

pleased 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 leave

one head as the motive-power of the multitudinous hands."

She agreed, in the same strain, to oblige him--a decision greeted

with satisfaction by the pair in whose behalf he besought her

friendly offices. The versatile invention and deft fingers of the

little brunette were welcome to the heavily-taxed housekeeper, as

were her gay good-humor and words of cheer and affection to the

younger of her companions. The two girls became more confidential in

six days than eighteen years of neigbborly intercourse had sufficed

to make them. Mabel's innate delicacy and excellent common sense

would, in ordinary circumstances, have barred effusiveness upon the

theme nearest her heart, but love at nineteen is rarely discreet,

even when the persuasives to communicativeness are less powerful

than were the sorcery of Rosa's sympathy and the confessions that

paved the way to answering and trustful communicativeness on her

friend's part.

They were having what she called "a good, long, comforting, as well

as comfortable chat" over their sewing in Mabel's chamber on the

afternoon of the eighth day of Winston's absence. The weather was

lovely, with the mellow brightness and balmy airs that make

Virginian autumns a joy and glory until November is half spent, and

the atmosphere held, at sunset, the warmth and much of the radiance

which had set the day--a perfect gem--in the heart of the golden

month. Into the eastern windows gazed the full moon, a crimson globe

upon the hazy horizon, while Venus lay, large and tremulous, among

the dying fires of the west.




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