, sir, to
suppose that she merely wished to persecute me. She wished to marry
me, and she is going to do it."

The colonel bowed his face upon his hands, and groaned. Mr Brandon
looked at him with a dim compassion in his eyes. "Do not reproach
yourself, sir," he said. "We thought we were acting for the best."

But little more was said, and two crushed old gentlemen retired to
their rooms.

In the days of her youth, Mrs Keswick had been very well known in
Richmond; and there were a good many elderly ladies and gentlemen, now
living in that city, who remembered her as a handsome, sparkling, and
somewhat eccentric young woman, and who had since heard of her as a
decidedly eccentric old one. Mr Brandon, also, had a large circle of
friends and acquaintances in the city; and when it became known that
these two elderly persons were to be married--and the news began to
spread shortly after Mrs Keswick reached the house of the friend with
whom she was staying--it excited a great deal of excusable interest.

Mrs Keswick, according to her ordinary methods of action, took all the
arrangements into her own hands. She appointed the wedding for the
eighth of January, in order that the happy pair might go to New York,
and be present at the nuptials of Junius and Roberta. Mr Brandon had
thought of writing to Junius, in the hope that the young man might do
something to avert his fate, but remembering how utterly unable Junius
had always been to move his aunt one inch, this way or that, he did
not believe that he could be of any service in this case, in which
all the energies of her mind were evidently engaged, and he readily
consented that she should attend to all the correspondence. It would,
indeed, have been too hard for him to break the direful truth to his
niece and Junius. He ventured to suggest that Miss Peyton be sent for,
having a faint hope that he might in some manner lean upon her; but
Mrs Keswick informed him that her niece must stay at home to take
charge of the place. There were two women in the house, who were
busy sewing for her, and it would be impossible for her to come to
Richmond.

Her correspondence kept the Widow Keswick very busy. She decided that
she would be married in a church which she used to attend in her
youth; and to all of her old friends, and to all those of Mr Brandon
whose names she could learn by diligent inquiry, invitations were sent
to attend the ceremony; but no one outside of Richmond was i