ok little Cro'; and whoever
came to the house had to make much of the child, or get little favor
from his "aunty."

As for Joe, Robert Munson, and other of Sybil's devoted friends, they
felt, in their secret hearts, that Sybil was safe in foreign parts, and
that her husband and friends had gone to join her; but as no one had
actually imparted this intelligence to them, they never talked over the
subject except among themselves.

Thus passed the winter; but with the opening of the spring, an event
occurred that for a while even superseded the "Hallow Eve Mystery," in
the fever of curiosity and interest it excited in the valley.

The great Dubarry manor, so long held in abeyance, was
claimed!--claimed by a gentleman in right of his wife--claimed by no
less a person than Mr. Horace Blondelle, once the husband and
afterwards the widower of that beautiful Rosa Blondelle who had been
so mysteriously murdered at Black Hall, and now the bridegroom of
Gentiliska, the great-granddaughter and only lineal descendant and
heiress of Philip Dubarry and Gentiliska his wife.

During the investigation of this claim, Mr. and Mrs. Horace Blondelle
occupied a handsome suite of apartments at the Blackville Hotel, and
made themselves very popular by the elegant little dinners and suppers
they gave, and the like of which had never before been seen in that
plain village.

When their case came on for a hearing, there was but little opposition
to the claimants, whose legal right to the manor was soon proved by the
documents they held in their possession, and firmly established.

When the case was decided in their favor, Mr. Horace Blondelle rented
Pendleton Park, which had been to let ever since the departure of its
owner.

And in that well-furnished mansion on that well-cultivated plantation he
settled down with his pretty young bride to the respectable life of a
country gentleman.

His residence in the neighborhood gave quite an impetus to the local
business.

The very first thing that he did, after his settlement at Pendleton
Park, was to advertise, through the columns of the "Blackville Banner,"
that he intended to rebuild the Dubarry mansion, and was ready to employ
the necessary artisans at liberal wages.

This gave great satisfaction to the laboring classes, who were half
their time pining in idleness, and the other half working at famine
prices.

But such a "reconstruction" was a gigantic undertaking. There was a
wildernes