The Rector of St. Marks

Moved by a strange impulse, Thornton Hastings took himself and his

fast bays to Newport, instead of Saratoga, and thither, the first week

in August, came Mrs. Meredith, with eight large trunks, her niece and

her niece's wardrobe, which had cost the pretty sum of eighteen

hundred dollars.

Mrs. Meredith was not naturally lavish of her money except where her

own interests were concerned, as they were in Anna's case. Conscious

of having come between her niece and the man she loved, she determined

that in the procuring of a substitute for this man, no advantages

which dress could afford should be lacking. Besides, Thornton Hastings

was a perfect connoisseur in everything pertaining to a lady's toilet,

and it was with him and his preference before her mind that Mrs.

Meredith opened her purse so widely and bought so extensively. There

were sun hats and round hats, and hats _Ã la cavalier_--there were

bonnets and veils, and dresses and shawls of every color and kind,

with the lesser matters of sashes and gloves and slippers and fans,

the whole making an array such as Anna had never seen before, and from

which she at first shrank back appalled and dismayed. But she was not

now quite so much of a novice as when she first reached New York the

Saturday following the picnic at Prospect Hill. She had passed

successfully and safely through the hands of mantua-makers, milliners

and hairdressers since then. She had laid aside every article brought

from home. She wore her hair in puffs and waterfalls, and her dresses

in the latest mode. She had seen the fashionable world as represented

at Saratoga, and, sickening at the sight, had gladly acquiesced in her

aunt's proposal to go on to Newport, where the air was purer and the

hotels not so densely packed. She had been called a beauty and a

belle, but her heart was longing for the leafy woods and fresh green

fields of Hanover; and Newport, she fancied, would be more like the

country than sultry, crowded Saratoga, and never since leaving home

had she looked so bright and pretty as the evening after her arrival

at the Ocean House, when invigorated by the bath she had taken in the

morning, and gladdened by sight of the glorious sea and the soothing

tones it murmured in her ear, she came down to the parlor clad in

simple white, with only a bunch of violets in her hair, and no other

ornament than the handsome pearls her aunt had given to her. Standing

at the open window, with the drapery of the lace curtain sweeping

gracefully behind her, she did not look much like the Anna who led the

choir in Hanover and visited the Widow Hobbs, nor yet much like the

picture which Thornton Hastings had formed of the girl who he knew was

there for his inspection. He had been absent the entire day, and had

not seen Mrs. Meredith, when she arrived early in the morning, but he

found her card in his room, and a strange smile curled his lip as he

said: "And so I have not escaped her."