, three days later, the body of John Ramon was found and brought
home for burial. Who can tell the heaviness which bore down upon the
heart of Estelle? He was buried, and week after week Estelle would carry
flowers and place them upon his grave.

A year now has passed away, and Estelle is seventeen, one of the most
loveable and beautiful girls in Southern Kentucky. The death of her
father had mellowed her life. She was a woman in ways, if a child in
years. William Scott had watched her faithfully as he had promised her
father in the hour of his death. Mrs. Ramon yet determined more than
ever that Estelle should never marry William Scott. She had set her
heart on some professional man for Estelle's husband who knew how to
make her a belle of society. She was the only counsellor of her
daughter, and in every way did she endeavor to cause her to break with
young Scott. She often pictured to her the grand life she might live
with some educated gentleman in the highest society; that her beauty and
training could and would make her admired by everybody, and that she
should not throw her chances away upon Bill Scott. She would never allow
Scott to call upon Estelle, and managed to keep Estelle for the most
part out of his company.

One day a well-dressed and handsome young man came into the Ramon
neighborhood. He gave it out that he was an artist from Cincinnati,
Ohio, and had come to make some sketches of the beautiful scenery along
the Cumberland. He was polite and gentlemanly in his manners, a good
conversationalist and entertaining. This artist, as he was thought to
be, was introduced into the Ramon home and soon became a great favorite
of Mrs. Ramon, and he did not fail to show every courtesy and attention
to the fair Estelle. This artist soon found out that his success
depended, not upon the girl, but upon her mother. He had been telling
Mrs. Ramon of the beauty and the accomplishments of her daughter, and
how she would shine in society if ever given an opportunity. He did not
fail to impress upon her his own importance and society connections.
This suited Mrs. Ramon exactly, and she determined to marry Estelle to
the artist. He declared to the mother his great and undying love for her
daughter, and how it would be the delight of his life to give her the
chance in the world to which her beauty so justly entitled her. Little
by little did the mother, her child's only adviser, succeed in winning
her over to her way of thi