e had not, for four years, seen his niece, and was not
prepared for such startling developments of mind and person. He was
proud to behold her queen of the school; queen, both in beauty and
mental accomplishments. He too might be forgiven for one daring thought
that soared down to matchmaking. It was not very strange that,
remembering his earliest wife and only sister, and thinking of his one
beloved child, the thought should cross him of the beauty and fitness of
a union between Hubert and Althea. "I will send Althea's picture across
the ocean to Hubert; I will write him to return home immediately," was
the conclusion of this good father. All parents have such pet schemes,
to greater or less extent.

The health of the master of Kennons had been for some time delicate. His
journey North, undertaken partially for his own benefit as well as to
accompany his niece to his home, proved rather injurious than otherwise.
The excessively hot weather prevailing rendered the trip anything but
agreeable, and he returned to Kennons much exhausted and debilitated.

He lost no time in carrying out his resolution with regard to his son.
He wrote him a letter full of the praises of Althea, assuring him that
the picture enclosed failed in justice to the original. He also spoke of
his own failing health and his great and increasing desire to behold him
again. Hubert Lisle never received this letter; it never left the office
at Flat Rock; indeed it was destroyed at Kennons.

Thornton Rush had returned from Europe at the close of the war. Instead,
however, of returning to Virginia, he had put up his shingle as a lawyer
in one of the new States of the growing West. He had not forgiven his
mother that she had allowed his several letters to go unanswered.

Two years had he now been at Windsor, among the wilds and roughnesses of
a new country; still had his mother for him no word of congratulation,
encouragement, or even recognition.

When Rusha Lisle read her husband's intercepted letter, thereby
discovering his designs as to the hand of Althea, a new thought struck
her.

It will be remembered that she took special delight in rendering others
uncomfortable, and in setting up an opposition to everybody's plans.
Against Hubert she had entertained a perpetual ill-feeling. Was he not
the child of her rival? Should he win for bride this sweet child of
sixteen, whose transcendent loveliness made an impression even upon her
own unsusceptible he