a disgraceful truth, but she shall never
come into the house that shelters me. I'll burn it down first. Where's
your sister?"

"She is ill in her room."

"Yes, I dare say. But she's had a hand in this, and I'll pay her for it,
or my name isn't Jemima Rhodes. Tell her so, with my compliments. Good
morning!"

With this abrupt adieu the spinster took herself off, tugging away at
her gauntlet, or what was left of it, and diversifying the movement with
a vicious crack of her whip now and then.

Elizabeth smiled and went upstairs again. Thus the great events of the
day ended.

In less than a week Tom Fuller was quietly married, and took his wife at
once on board a steamer bound for Europe. She had come forth from her
sick room greatly subdued and changed in many respects, but able, from
her peculiar character, to put a veil between her and the past, which
would have been impossible to a woman like Elizabeth.

I am happy to state that Dolf's treachery met with its proper reward.
Clorinda succeeded in saving her money, and she married the parson,
leaving Dolf to his shame and remorse. Victoria gave him the cold
shoulder, and made herself so intimate with a new male Adonis, who came
to the house as domestic, that Dolf's days were full of misery and his
nights made restless with legions of nightmares.

The house by the sea shore stands up in its old picturesque stateliness,
and within the sunshine never fails, and the summer of content is never
disturbed.

Old Benson, a very short time after these events, became possessed of a
fine tract of land running back from the point where his house stood;
how he paid for it, and got a clear deed, no one could tell except
himself and Mr. Mellen. It is certain that both of these men knew how to
keep a secret, for to this day it is utterly unknown in the
neighborhood, that Elizabeth ever lay ill and suffering in that good
man's house. The servants speak of her visit to New York about that
time, and so this great family mystery ended.

THE END.

MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS' WORKS.

_A NOBLE WOMAN._

_PALACES AND PRISONS._

_MARRIED IN HASTE._

_RUBY GRAY'S STRATEGY._

_THE CURSE OF GOLD._

_WIVES AND WIDOWS; OR, THE BROKEN LIFE._

_THE REJECTED WIFE._

_THE GOLD BRICK._

_THE HEIRESS._

_FASHION AND FAMINE._

_THE OLD HOMESTEAD._

_SILENT STRUGGLES._

_MARY DERWEN