nterrupted her loving husband. "How has your cotton crop
turned out? You might consign it to me. How many bales?"

"A hundred; and a few dozen hogsheads of tobacco."

"Some six thousand dollars per annum," muttered the papa musingly;
"hm, hm."

"As to that," said I negligently, "I have sufficient capital in my
hands to increase the one hundred bales to two hundred another year."

"Two hundred! two hundred!" The man's eyes glistened approvingly.
"That might do. Not so bad. Well, Arthurine is a good girl. We'll
see, my dear Mr Howard--we'll see. Yes, yes--come here every
evening--whenever you like. You know Arthurine is always glad to see
you."

"And Mr and Mrs Bowsends?" asked I.

"Are most delighted," replied the couple, smiling graciously.

I bowed, agreeably surprised, and took my departure. I was
nevertheless not over well pleased with a part of Mr Bowsends' last
speech. It looked rather too much as if my affectionate father-in-law
that was to be, wished to balance his lost bets with my cotton bales;
and, as I thought of it, my gorge rose at the selfishness of my
species, and more especially at the stupid impudent egotism of
Bowsends and the thousands who resemble him. To all such, even their
children are nothing but so many bales of goods, to be bartered,
bought, and sold. And this man belongs to the _haut-ton_ of New York!
Five-and-twenty years ago he went about with a tailor's measure in
his pocket--now a leader on 'Change, and member of twenty committees
and directorships.

But then Arthurine, with her seventeen summers and her lovely face,
the most extravagant little doll in the whole city, and that is not
saying a little, but the most elegant, charming--a perfect sylph! It
was now about eleven months since I had first become acquainted with
the bewitching creature; and, from the very first day, I had been her
vassal, her slave, bound by chains as adamantine as those of Armida.
She had just left the French boarding-school at St John's. That, by
the by, is one of the means by which our mushroom aristocracy pushes
itself upwards. A couple of pretty daughters, brought up at a
fashionable school, are sure to attract a swarm of young fops and
danglers about them; and the glory of the daughters is reflected upon
the papa and mamma. And this little sorceress knew right well how to
work her incantations. Every heart was at her feet; but not one out
of her twenty or more adorers could boast that he had received