I do not affirm that the spelling of this letter was quite as accurate as that given in this copy, but the epistle was legible, and evidently gave Marble a great deal of trouble.  As for the letters of dear Lucy, I forbear to copy any.  They were like herself, however; ingenuous, truthful, affectionate and feminine.  Among other things, she informed me that our union was to take place in St. Michael’s; that I was to meet her at the rectory, and that we might proceed to Clawbonny from the church-door.  She had invited Rupert and Emily to be present, but the health of the last would prevent their accepting the invitation.  Major, or general, Merton, as he was universally called in New York, had the gout, and could not be there; and I was asked if it would not be advisable under all the circumstances, to have the affair as private as possible.  My answer conveyed a cheerful compliance, and a week after that was despatched, I left the Genessee country, having successfully completed all my business.  No one opposed me, and so far from being regarded as an intruder, the world thought me the proper heir of my cousin.

Chapter XXIX.

  “I calmed her fears, and she was calm,
    And told her love with virgin pride;
  And so I won my Genevieve,
    My bright and beauteous bride.”

  Coleridge.

By arrangement, I stopped at the Willow Cove, to pick up Marble.  I found the honest fellow happy as the day was long; but telling fearfully long and wonderful yarns of his adventures, to the whole country round.  My old mate was substantially a man of truth; but he did love to astonish “know-nothings.”  He appears to have succeeded surprisingly well, for the Dutchmen of that neighbourhood still recount anecdotes, of the achievements and sufferings of Captain Marvel, as they usually call him, though they have long ceased to think the country belongs to the United Provinces.

Moses was glad to see me; and, after passing a night in the cottage of his mother, we proceeded towards Clawbonny, in a conveyance that had been sent to Willow Cove to meet me.  It was a carriage of my own, one of my own negroes acting as driver.  I knew the old team, and will acknowledge that tears forced themselves to, my eyes as I thus saw myself, as it might be, reinstated in my own.  The same feeling came powerfully over me, as we drove to the summit of an elevation in the road, that commanded a view of the vale and buildings of Clawbonny.  What a moment was that in my existence!  I cannot say that I was born to wealth, even as wealth was counted among us sixty years since, but I was born to a competency.  Until I lost my ship, I had never known the humiliating sensations of poverty; and the feeling that passed over my heart, when I first heard that Clawbonny was sold, has left an impression that will last for life.  I looked at the houses, as I passed them in the streets, and remembered that I was houseless.  I did not