ms with happiness, yet her
manner is somewhat abstracted--she is evidently agitated. At length
Leland speaks,

"Dearest Ursula, it seems to me that no wealth could contribute to our
happiness; we have youth, health, strength, and loving hearts to bear
us on our life-journey, as hand-in-hand we meet its pains and
pleasures. Ah! I can already fancy our pleasant fireside. No one's
caps will find so ready a sale as yours, dear Ursula; and my pencil,
too, will be inspired to greater effort by your praise." And Leland
turned aside to conceal the smile which played round his mouth at the
deception he was practicing. "But what is the matter, Ursula--what
agitates you thus; you surely do not repent your promise, beloved
one!"

"O, no, no, dear Frank! but I have something to tell you, which,
perhaps, may forfeit me your love."

"Good heavens, Ursula! what mean you! tears, too--speak, speak, what
is it! is not your heart mine, or have you loved another more truly!"

"No! O, no! and yet, Frank, I am not what I seem--I have deceived you.
You think me but a poor, friendless girl, dependent upon my needle for
my maintenance, when, in fact, O, Frank, how shall I say it, I am--

"Speak, dearest!"

"I am an heiress."

Frank sprang to his feet in amazement.

"You--you--dear, artless girl that you are--you an heiress! It can't
be--it is impossible! and--what a pity!" he adds, aside, as one half
his airy castle fell to the ground.

"Now, sit down, Frank, and when you have heard my story, and my
motives for doing as I have done, you will, I trust, pardon the
duplicity I have been guilty of toward you."

And before she had finished her recital Frank's plans were formed; so,
falling at her feet, he poured out his acknowledgments for her
condescension in honoring with her hand one so far beneath her, and
had the satisfaction--cunning dog--of having a pair of white arms
thrown around his neck, and a sweet kiss, from sweeter lips, pressed
upon his brow, as the generous girl assured him that were her fortune
ten thousand times doubled, she should consider all as dross compared
with his love.

"Well, I am fairly caught," quoth Frank, in the privacy of his
apartment, "for I swore I never would marry an heiress. That was a
rash oath--let it pass. But what a pity dear Ursula has money. I wish
to my soul her father had not left her a cent--why could not he have
endowed a hospital. She is a dear, noble girl, willing to bestow it
all upon