could almost as soon think
of parting with the sunlight as with Susan."

"You forget the advantages she would enjoy. You are not wont to allow your
feelings to interfere with the interests of those you love. I am sure you
will not in this case. Think the matter over, and talk with your wife about
it. She has an undoubted right to be consulted. I must go and prepare some
letters for the evening mail." So saying, he arose and went to his room.

The two brothers, Richard and Henry Clifton, had been separated for many
years. When Richard was seventeen years of age, his father indulged him in
his earnest desire to become a merchant. At a great pecuniary sacrifice, he
was placed in the employment of an intelligent and prosperous merchant in
New York; and when, at the age of twenty-one, he was admitted as a member
of the firm, his patrimony was given him to be invested in the concern.

To his remaining son, Henry, Mr. Clifton offered a collegiate education.
This offer was declined by Henry, not through lack of a desire for
knowledge, but in consequence of a too humble estimate of his mental
powers. When he became of age, a deed of the homestead was given him. Not
long afterwards, his father was carried to his long home.

The business of the firm to which Richard Clifton belonged rendered it
necessary for him to repair to a foreign city, where he resided for fifteen
years. He was now on his first visit to his native place, subsequent to his
return to the commercial emporium.

Susan, the only child of Henry and Mary Clifton, was just sixteen years of
age. Her light form, transparent countenance, brilliant eye, and graceful
movements, were not in keeping with the theory that rusticity must be the
necessary result of living in a farmhouse, especially when the labors
thereof are not performed by hireling hands.

From the first day of his visit, the heart of the merchant warmed towards
the child of his only brother. Her delicate and affectionate attentions
increased the interest he felt in her. That interest was not at all
lessened by a distinct perception of the fact that she was fitted to adorn
the magnificent parlors of his city residence. It was, therefore, his fixed
purpose to take her with him on his return. Some objections, he doubted
not, would be raised by his sober brother; but he placed his reliance for
success upon the mother's influence. No mother, he was sure, could reject
so brilliant an offer for her darling chil