"Married, this morning, at St. Paul's Church, by the Rev. Dr. ----,
assisted by the rector, Guy Thornton, Esq., of Cuylerville, to Miss
Julia Hamilton, of this city."
Such was the notice which appeared in a daily Boston paper one lovely
morning in September five years after the last entry in Miss Thornton's
journal. Guy had reached the point at last when he could put Daisy from
his heart and take another in her place. He had never seen her or heard
directly from her since the night she brought him the marriage
settlement and tore it in pieces, thinking thus to give it to him beyond
a doubt. That this did not change the matter one whit he knew just as he
knew she could not give him the ten thousand dollars settled upon her
until she was of age. She was of age now, and had been for a year or
more, and, to say the truth, he had expected to hear from her when she
was twenty-one. To himself he had reasoned in this wise: Her father told
her that the tearing up that paper made no difference, that she was
powerless of herself to act until she was of age, so she will wait
quietly till then before making another effort. And in his heart Guy
thought how he would not take a penny from her, but would insist upon
her keeping it. Still he should respect her all the more for her sense
of justice and generosity, he thought, and when her twenty-first
birthday came and passed, and week after week went by, and brought no
sign from Daisy, there was a pang in his heart and a look of
disappointment on his face which did not pass away until October hung
her gorgeous colors upon the hills of Cuylerville, and Julia Hamilton
came to the Brown Cottage to spend a few weeks with his sister.
From an independent, self-reliant, energetic girl of twenty-two Julia
had ripened into a noble and dignified woman of twenty-seven, with a
quiet repose of manner which seemed to rest and quiet one, and which
told insensibly on Guy, until at last he found himself dreading to have
her go and wishing to keep her with him always. The visit was lengthened
into a month; and when in November he went with her to Boston he had
asked her to take Daisy's place, and she had said she would. Very freely
they had talked of the little golden-haired girl, and Julia told him
what she had heard of her through a mutual acquaintance who had been on
the same vessel with the McDonalds when they returned from South
America. Cousin Tom was with them, a rich man then and a richer now, for
his gold mine and his railroad had made him almost a millionaire, and it
was currently reported and believed that Mr. McDonald designed him for
his daughter. They were abroad now, the McDonalds and Tom, who bore the
expenses of the party. Daisy, it was said, was even more beautiful than
in her early girlhood, and to her loveliness were added cultivation and
refinement of manner. She had had the best of teachers while in South
America, and was now continuing her studies abroad with a view to
further improvement. All this Julia Hamilton told Guy, and then bade him
think again ere deciding to join her life with his.