this
forester as of any beginning whatsoever. It is all wrong. Thousands of
convicts were exported to Chesapeake Bay from the slums of London,
Bristol, Glasgow, and other places, and propagated here like the
pokeweed. With instincts of larceny, and, possibly, a little rebellion
in it, your man has robbed this house of your person; if he should also
take your heart, the shame would be upon us."

"Oh, mother, you are unforgiving!"

"Of course I am; I am Scotch."

"You have not one son-in-law but this who would give you back the large
amount your husband has misspent--not one who could do it but at a
sacrifice you would not permit. For you and papa, to restore your faith
in each other, I married our stranger creditor, forcing him to the altar
rather than he me; and he has already proved himself of more delicacy
than you, if I am to believe you are in your right mind. No, I am no
McLane."

"You are not, if you do not use their Scotch-Irish perseverance to get
the better of Meshach Milburn. You have obtained a marriage settlement
with him, now have it confirmed, and sue out your divorce before the
Legislature! Publicly as you have been profaned, ask the State of
Maryland for reparation. The McLanes, the Custises, and all their
connections, from the Christine River to the James, will storm
Annapolis, make your cause, if necessary, a political issue, and the
courts of this county will give you damages out of this beast's
unpopular wealth."

Vesta looked at her mother with astonishment.

"What would become of my self-respect, my maiden name, if I made that
show of my private griefs, mother?"

"Why, you would be a heroine. Every old lover, of whom there are so many
eligible ones, would feel his zeal return. A romance would attend your
name wherever the Baltimore newspapers are taken, and you would be as
great a heroine as Betty Patterson."

"That disobedient girl?" Vesta, still in astonishment, exclaimed.

"I saw her when the bride of Jerome Bonaparte. She was not half as
lovely as you! If Jerome had seen you--you were not born, then, and I
was in society--he would never have looked at Betty. But, you see, she
forced a settlement out of the Emperor, husbanded the income of it, and
she is rich, and freer to-day than if she had become a French
Bonaparte."

"Weak as they may be in many things, I am a Custis," Vesta spoke, with
pale scorn. "I would not drag my name through the tobacco-stained
lobbies of Annapolis to w