r soul. Too self-contained and too proud
to display the depth of her feelings, except in rare instances, and too
sensible to allow them to interfere in the training of the child, she had
spared neither her heart nor her purse in his education, with such happy
results that he was regarded by all who knew him as one of the finest
specimens of young Virginia that it were possible to meet. Of medium
height, active, handsome, dark-eyed, dark-haired, fiery and impetuous in
temperament, generous and frank in disposition, he was a model among men;
trained from his boyhood in every manly sport and art, and educated in
the best institutions of learning in the colonies, his natural grace
perfected by a tour of two years in England and abroad, from which he had
only a year or so since returned, he perfectly represented all that was
best in the young manhood of Virginia. For many years there had been
hopes in the minds of Colonel Wilton and Madam Talbot, that the affection
between the two young people, who had played together from childhood with
all the frankness and simplicity permitted by country life, would develop
into something nearer and dearer, and that by their marriage at the
proper time the two great estates might be united.

The two children, early informed of this desire, had grown up under the
influence of the idea; as they reached years of discretion, they had
taken it for granted, considering the arrangement as a fact accomplished
by tacit understanding and habit rather than by formal promise.
Personally attached to each other, nay, even fondly affectionate, the
indefinite tie seemed sufficiently substantial to bring about the desired
result. Katharine had, especially during Talbot's absence in Europe,
resisted all the importunities and rejected all the proposals made to
her, and on his account refused all the hearts laid at her feet. Since
Talbot's return, however, and especially since he refused, or hesitated
rather, to cast his lot in with her own people, his neighbors and
friends, in the Revolution, the affair had, on her part at least, assumed
a new phase. Still, there had been nothing said or done to prevent this
consummation so devoutly to be wished until the advent of Seymour. Then,
too, Talbot, calm and confident in the situation, had not noticed
Seymour's infatuation, and was entirely ignorant that the coveted prize
had slipped from his grasp. The insight of the confident lover was not
so keen as that