most circular mound, which became a conspicuous object in
the valley. Mr. LeMonde's father, who bought the farm many years
before, called the hill "Mount Pisgah." He was a descendant of the
French Huguenots. When he came from Louisiana he built a log house on
this elevation. A few years before our narrative opens Mr. William
LeMonde had removed this log house and built a spacious mansion of
brick. It was the only brick building for miles around.

The mansion Judge LeMonde erected was an ornament to this beautiful
site. It was two stories high, crowned with a French mansard roof. It
faced the river and a country road which ran along the river bank. The
visitor stepped upon a broad piazza, and then entered through a wide
and ornamented doorway a large hall from which ascended a broad flight
of stairs. On the left was a spacious drawing-room, carpeted with an
imported Brussels and adorned with several oil paintings. It contained
a piano, an instrument seldom seen in those days. Back of this room was
the owner's study or private apartment. On the right was a room half
the size of the drawing-room, all finished in white, containing on the
river side a fine bay-window. This room was fitted up with much taste
as a family living-room. At the rear of this was a large dining-room,
and beyond this a kitchen in which the colored cook, Aunt Dinah, ruled
supreme. On the second floor were several large bedchambers furnished
in a neat and becoming manner. One hundred yards west of the house, on
the ridge, was a cluster of negro cabins, and beyond these an immense
barn, the largest in the county.

Viola LeMonde was an only daughter of Judge LeMonde. She had one
brother, George, two years younger than herself. Her father and mother
almost idolized her, and gave her advantages far beyond those living
around her. A fine female boarding school then existed at Cincinnati,
Ohio, to which she was sent, and there she remained three years,
gaining that knowledge deemed best for young ladies in those days: the
common branches of education and the higher accomplishments of music
and drawing. At the time of which we write she was in her nineteenth
year, and was known far and near for her beauty of mind and person. She
was a perfect blonde. A bright light sparkled in her blue eyes; her
golden hair was simply arranged over temples and brows beautifully
formed. The color of her face was like a delicate peach, white with a
blending of red. Her nose wa