th. But, still, one would think you might have been happy
with a virtuous and affectionate wife!"

"Alas! it is but a hopeless experiment to marry one, while the heart
is still yearning towards another. Confidence came too late; for,
discovering my unhappiness, Mildred extorted a tardy confession from
me; a confession of all but the concealment of the true name; and
justly wounded at the deception of which she had been the dupe, and
yielding to the impulses of a high and generous spirit, she announced
to me that she was unwilling to continue the wife of any man on such
terms. We parted, and I hastened into the south-western states, where
I passed the next twelvemonth in travelling, hurrying from place to
place, in the vain hope of obtaining peace of mind. I plunged into
the prairies, and most of the time mentioned was lost to me as
respects the world, in the company of hunters and trappers."

"This, then, explains your knowledge of that section of the country,"
exclaimed Mr. Effingham, "for which I have never been able to
account! We thought you among your old friends in Carolina, all that
time."

"No one knew where I had secreted myself, for I passed under another
feigned name, and had no servant, even. I had, however, sent an
address to Mildred, where a letter would find me; for, I had begun to
feel a sincere affection for her, though it might not have amounted
to passion, and looked forward to being reunited, when her wounded
feelings had time to regain their tranquillity. The obligations of
wedlock are too serious to be lightly thrown aside, and I felt
persuaded that neither of us would be satisfied in the end, without
discharging the duties of the state into which we had entered."

"And why did you not hasten to your poor wife, cousin Jack," Eve
innocently demanded, "as soon as you returned to the settlements?"

"Alas! my-dear girl, I found letters at St. Louis announcing her
death. Nothing was said of any child, nor did I in the least suspect
that I was about to become a father. When Mildred died, I thought all
the ties, all the obligations, all the traces of my ill-judged
marriage were extinct; and the course taken by her relations, of
whom, in this country, there remained very few, left me no
inclination to proclaim it. By observing silence, I continued to pass
as a bachelor, of course; though had there been any apparent reason
for avowing what had occurred, I think no one who knows me, can
suppose I would