t the offers her husband had received for his estate in
town had not only opened his eyes to its value, but had convinced him
that, as a patriotic citizen, he had no right to retain it for his
private use; he had therefore come to the conclusion to reap the benefit
himself which other speculators had proposed to do. He should take down
the house, make a street through the land, divide it into small lots, and
erect a number of houses upon it, one of which he meant to reserve for
himself. "I should regret what I conceive to be the necessity of this
thing," he added, "if you were not so perfectly satisfied with your Clyde
residence. As you will always repair to it early in the spring, it
matters little if you return to walls of brick and mortar in the autumn."

We pass over the involuntary tears that followed this communication, as
speculators would pronounce them unreasonable. It now became necessary
for Frances to visit the city to make arrangements, and take a last leave
of her pleasant mansion. In justice, it must be said, she thought less
of her own deprivation than of the new accession of care and toil that
her husband was bringing upon himself.--When she returned to Clyde, she
had lost by fatigue nearly all the health she had previously gained.

Most people have witnessed the rapidity with which the work of
destruction goes on in modern days. In a very short time the splendid
mansion was a pile of ruins, a street laid open, and buildings erecting
on the spot.

Mr. Draper's visits to Clyde had been hitherto confined to the Sabbath,
and generally terminated with it: but he now wrote to his wife that he
intended to "pass a month with her. It was a comparative season of
leisure; his vessels had sailed, his buildings were going on well, and he
should be able to enjoy the quiet of the country."

Frances received this intelligence with new-born hope. She felt certain,
that one month, passed amidst the tranquil pleasures of the country,
would regenerate his early tastes. She talked eloquently of the
corrupting atmosphere of the city, and was sanguine that now all would go
well; that his inordinate engrossment in business would yield to the
influences by which he would find himself surrounded. And so it turned
out, for a few days. Mr. Draper was as happy as an affectionate husband
and father must naturally be, reunited to the objects of his tenderness.
He said that "he felt uncommonly well, had much less of the