without
the slightest intimation of her purpose.

Mrs. Linden, in settling upon her son William her whole estate, with
the small reservation before mentioned, gave up to him the splendid
mansion in which she lived, with its costly furniture--and the entire
control of it, as a matter that followed of course, to his young wife.
Many months had not passed, before doubts of the propriety of what she
had done began to creep into the mind of Mrs. Linden. Her pride of
family had been gratified--but already had her pride of independence
been assailed. It was plain that she was not now of as much importance
in the eyes of her son as before. As to Antoinette, the more she came
intimately in contact with her, the less she liked her. She found
little in her that she could love. The scheme of marrying Florence to a
young man of "one of the first families" (the only recommendation he
had) was heartily entered into by this worthy trio, and while there was
a prospect of its accomplishment, they drew together with much
appearance of harmony.

The end united them. But after Florence had broken away from the toils
they had been throwing around her, and they became satisfied from the
strong independent letters which she sent home, that all hope of
bending her to their wishes was at an end, the true character of each
began to show itself more fully.

Mrs. Linden had an imperious will. She had always exercised over her
children a rigid control, at the same time that in their earlier years
she had won their affections. The freedom of mature years, and the
sense of individual responsibility which it brings, caused all of them
to rebel against the continued exercise of parental domination. In the
case of Charles and Florence, the effect was a broad separation.
William had sinister ends to gain in yielding a passive obedience to
his mother's will. When the bulk of her property was transferred to
him, those ends were gained, and he felt no longer disposed to suffer
any encroachment upon his freedom. In one act of obedience he had
fulfilled all obligations of filial duty, and was not disposed to
trouble himself further. He had consented to give up his father's name,
and to marry a woman for whom he had no affection, to please his mother
and get an estate. The estate set off against these balanced the
account; and now, there being nothing more to gain, he had nothing more
to yield. When, therefore, after the design of marrying Florence to a
ma