art?

Had she not surreptitiously gained access to her husband's last will and
testament, wherein he had made his sister's child co-heiress with Hubert
to all his estate?

What could be expected of Rusha Lisle but instant action to the
following effect: First, to break her long silence to her son by
enclosing him the picture designed for Hubert, and cordially inviting
him to make her a visit at Kennons, where he would find the beautiful
original.

Mrs. Lisle kept her own counsel, never intimating a wish or expectation
of her son's return. Her surprise upon his arrival was well
counterfeited; nor was it ever known beyond mother and son that the
latter had not been first to make the overture. But this son, in some
respects so like his mother, might have evinced less disposition to do
at once her bidding had not the inducements held forth been
all-sufficient.

Thornton Rush was not a lady's man. Byron was made miserable on account
of the deformity of his foot. So our less distinguished but equally
sensitive hero had always the impression that his long wrists and ankles
were subjects of ridicule. He believed the ladies did not fancy him; he
therefore made no efforts to propitiate their favor. If they happened to
laugh in his presence--and the foolish things are always happening to
laugh--he made sure it was at himself; and he shot at them most vengeful
flashes from his cavernous orbs, which annihilated them not at all, but
rendered them more risible.

"But there is a tide in the affairs of men."

"There is a hand that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will."

The inanimate picture at which Thornton Rush gazed did not laugh at him.
On the contrary, it looked up to him with such a sweet confiding
trust--O, there was something in that face he had seen in none other. It
wonderfully attracted him. Even had it not, he would have made every
effort to win Althea's heart just the same; and for the very reasons
that had instigated his mother. He hated Hubert Lisle. To thwart him he
would have circumvented heaven and earth. With Thornton Rush this
consideration weighed even more than Althea's promised dowry.

Spite, revenge, avarice, every worst passion should be gratified in the
accomplishment of a union with Althea.

Unfortunately, the situation of things at Kennons favored this wretched
wooing. Duncan Lisle was failing rapidly, and had become confined to his
room. Above all others, he loved Althea to be with him; but