f fashion and the charitable
engagements of the mother. Indeed, this adaptable woman soon found that
she had become an object of more than usual interest, by her latest
exploit, in the circles in which she moved, and her softened manner and
edifying conversation showed that she appreciated her position. Even
the McTavishes, who were inclined to be skeptical, said that Carmen was
delightful in her new role. This showed that the information Mrs. Mavick
got from the women who took care of her baby was of a kind to touch the
hearts of mothers and spinsters.

Moreover, the child was very pretty, and early had winning ways. The
nurse, before the baby was a year old, discovered in her the cleverness
of the father and the grace and fascination of the mother. And it must
be said that, if she did not excite passionate affection at first, she
enlisted paternal and maternal pride in her career. It dawned upon both
parents that a daughter might give less cause for anxiety than a son,
and that in an heiress there were possibilities of an alliance that
would give great social distinction. Considering, therefore, all that
she represented, and the settled conviction of Mrs. Mavick that she
would be the sole inheritor of the fortune, her safety and education
became objects of the greatest anxiety and precaution.

It happened that about the time Evelyn was christened there was a
sort of epidemic of stealing children, and of attempts to rob tombs of
occupants who had died rich or distinguished, in the expectation of
a ransom. The newspapers often chronicled mysterious disappearances;
parents whose names were conspicuous suffered great anxiety, and
extraordinary precautions were taken in regard to the tombs of public
men. And this was the reason that the heiress of the house of Mavick
became the object of a watchful vigilance that was probably never before
exercised in a republic, and that could only be paralleled in the case
of a sole heir-apparent of royalty.

These circumstances resulted in an interference with the laws of nature
which it must be confessed destroyed one of the most interesting studies
in heredity that was ever offered to an historian of social life. What
sort of a child had we a right to expect from Thomas Mavick, diplomatist
and operator, successor to the rights and wrongs of Rodney Henderson,
and Carmen Mavick, with the past of Carmen Eschelle and Mrs. Henderson?
Those who adhered to the strictest application of here