ips. The one looked fair, radiant,
and charming as a Parisian coquette; the other like a Grecian goddess,
superb, magnificent, queenly, simple in her exquisite beauty--art or
ornaments could do nothing for her.

"Look," said the general to Sir Oswald, "that picture surpasses anything
you have on your walls."

Sir Oswald bowed.

"What a beautiful girl your niece is!" the old soldier continued. "See
how her face resembles this of Lady Edelgitha Darrell. Pray do not think
me impertinent, but I cannot imagine, old friend, why you married, so
devoted to bachelor life as you were, when you had a niece so beautiful,
so true a Darrell, for your heiress. I am puzzled now that I see her."

"She lacked training," said Sir Oswald.

"Training?" repeated the general, contemptuously. "What do you call
training? Do you mean that she was not experienced in all the little
trifling details of a dinner-table--that she could not smile as she told
graceful little untruths? Training! Why, that girl is a queen among
women; a noble soul shines in her grand face, there is a royal grandeur
of nature about her that training could never give. I have lived long,
but I have never seen such a woman."

"She had such strange, out-of-the-way, unreal notions, I dared not--that
is the truth--I dared not leave Darrell Court to her."

"I hope you have acted wisely," said the general; "but, as an old friend
and a true one, I must say that I doubt it."

"My wife, I am happy to say, has plenty of common sense," observed Sir
Oswald.

"Your wife," returned the general, looking at the sheen of the golden
hair and the shining dress, "is pretty, graceful, and amiable, but that
girl has all the soul; there is as much difference between them as
between a golden buttercup and a dark, stately, queenly rose. The rose
should have been ruler at Darrell Court, old friend."

Then he asked, abruptly:

"What are you going to do for her, Sir Oswald?"

"I have provided for her," he replied.

"Darrell Court, then, and all its rich revenues go to your wife, I
presume?"

"Yes, to my wife," said Sir Oswald.

"Unconditionally?" asked the general.

"Most certainly," was the impatient reply.

"Well, my friend," said the general, "in this world every one does as he
or she likes; but to disinherit that girl, with the face and spirit of a
true Darrell, and to put a fair, amiable blonde stranger in her place,
was, to say the least, eccentric--the world will deem it so