fely married. Is there not one among those whom you
might prefer to all the rest?"

"No, my father, not one whom I could endure for an instant as a lover."

"And oh! when I feel this fatal rising of the heart and fulness of the
head--this Wave of Death that is sure to bear me off sooner or later to
the Ocean of Eternity--Oh, then, my Sybil, how my soul travails for
you!" groaned the old man.

"Father! do you so much wish to see me married?"

"I wish it more than anything else in the world, my child."

"Father, you have named every young man in the neighborhood whom you
would like as a son-in-law?"

"Every one, my daughter."

"Are you sure?"

"Quite sure, my love. Why do you ask?"

She slid down from her low ottoman to the floor, and laid her arms upon
his knees and her beautiful black ringleted head upon her folded hands,
and whispered:

"Because, dear father, there is one whom you have forgotten to name: one
who loves me, and is altogether well worthy to be called your son."

"Ah!" cried the old man fiercely, under his breath--"a fortune-hunter,
on my life! the danger is nearer than I had even apprehended!"

"No, father, no! He is as far as possible from being what you say!"
fervently exclaimed Sybil.

"He is wealthy, then?"

"No, no, no! he is poor in everything but in goodness and wisdom!"

"Oh, no doubt you think him rich in these! But who is he, unhappy child?
What is his name?"

Very subdued came the answer. Old Bertram was obliged to bend his gray
head to his daughter's lips, and put his shrivelled hand behind his ear
to catch the sound of her low voice.

"He is the young lawyer newly settled in Blackville, whose praise is on
everybody's lips."

"JOHN LYON HOWE!" exclaimed the old man, throwing up his head in
astonishment.

"Yes, father," breathed the girl.

"And he loves you?"

She nodded.

"And you love him?"

She nodded again.

"A briefless young lawyer, with a long list of impoverished brothers and
sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins! Bad enough; but not as it might
have been. She can gain nothing by that connection! But then she need
not lose anything either," murmured the old man to himself. After
reflecting for a few moments, with his head upon his breast, he suddenly
raised his eyes and exclaimed:

"But I have never seen the young man at this house!"

"No, father!"

"Nor at any other house where we visit."

"No, father; for although he receives many invitations to vi