ely. The more
intimately I knew them the higher did they rise in my estimation. A
purer, sweeter, truer-hearted girl than Blanche I had never seen. There
was an artlessness and innocence about her but rarely met with in young
ladies of her age. Especially was she free from that worldliness and
levity which so often mars young maidenhood. Her mind was well stored
and cultivated, and she was beginning to use her mental treasures in a
way that interested you, and made you listen with pleased attention when
she spoke on even common-place subjects. Her manners had in them a grace
and dignity that was very attractive. As she advanced towards health her
deportment took on an easy, confiding air, as if she looked upon me as a
true friend. Her smile, whenever I appeared, broke over her gentle face
like a gleam of sunshine.

Mrs. Montgomery's manner towards me was distinguished by the same
frankness that marked her daughter's deportment. The stately air that
struck me in the beginning I no longer observed. If it existed, my eyes
saw it differently. At her request, when her mind was sufficiently at
ease about her daughter to busy itself with the common affairs of life,
I brought Judge Bigelow to see her, and she placed her business matters
in his hands. The judge was very much struck with her person and manner,
and told me the day after his first meeting with her that she came
nearer to his ideal of a lady than any woman he had ever met; and as
for the daughter she seemed more like a picture he had once seen than a
piece of real flesh and blood. I smiled at the Judge's enthusiasm, but
did not wonder at the impression he had received.

Other characters in our story now claim attention, and we must turn to
them. After Henry Wallingford had gained the mastery over himself:--the
struggle was wild, but brief--he resumed his office duties as usual, and
few noticed any change in him, except that he withdrew even more than
ever into himself. I met him occasionally, and observed him closely. In
my eyes there was a marked difference in the aspect of his face. It had
an expression of patient suffering at times--and again I saw in it a
most touching sadness.

The dashing nephew of Judge Bigelow offered himself to Squire Floyd's
daughter in about a week after her rejection of Wallingford's suit,
and was accepted. I became immediately cognizant of the fact through
my wife, who had the news from Delia's aunt, Mrs. Dean. A day or two
afterward