ars; he kissed her at the altar, and gave
his hand to the Judge warmly:

"I know you will be a better Christian, Cousin Daniel. God has given you
much love on the earth. Our prayers for you have been answered."

Vesta was disappointed, expecting to see William made happy in a
marriage with Rhoda.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE CURSE OF THE HAT.

As the spring burst upon Princess Anne in cherry blossoms and dogwood
flowers, in herring and shad weighting the river seines, and broods of
young chickens and peach-trees pullulating, and as the time of fruit and
corn and early cantaloupe followed, the life in human veins also
unfolded in infant fruit, and Vesta became a mother.

The forest and the court had harmonized in the offspring, and the young
boy took the name of Custis Milburn.

Healthy and comely, as if Society had made the match for Nature, the
infant flourished without a day's ailing, and grew upon its parents'
eyes like a miracle, having the symmetry and loveliness of the mother,
and the bold, challenging countenance of the father; and to Meshach it
brought the satisfaction of an improved posterity, and an heir to his
success; to Vesta, compensation for the loss of worldly society.

She found more joy in Teackle Hall, with this wondrous product of her
sacrifice and pain, than with the admiration of all the good families in
Maryland; and a sense of warmth and gratitude sprang to her conscience
towards the father of this matchless gift.

"I have not given him my whole loyalty," she reflected, with exacting
piety; "I have let trifles stand before my vows."

Accordingly, when Milburn, conscience-stricken, and accusing himself of
hard conditions in exacting a marriage without love, came one day, with
all the magnanimity of a new parent, before his wife to make some
restitution, she surprised him by arising and kissing him.

"Sir, I have been very proud and stubborn. Do forgive me!"

He pressed her to his breast, while his tears ran over her face.

"Honey," he said at length, "what a mockery my crime to you has been--to
think that you could ever love me! No, I will give you freedom. Dear as
your captivity is to me, your cage shall open and you shall fly."

Vesta stepped back at these strange words and waited for him to explain.
He continued:

"I will send you to Italy with our child. Your father shall go, too, if
you desire. Go from me and these unloved conditions, this hateful
bondage and constraint"--his