CHAPTER

      I. Ethelyn. 
     II.  The Van Buren set. 
    III.  Richard Markham. 
     IV.  The bridal. 
      V. The honeymoon. 
     VI.  Mrs. Markham’s ways. 
    VII.  Getting home. 
   VIII.  Andy. 
     IX.  Dinner, and after it. 
      X. First days in Olney. 
     XI.  Calls and visiting. 
    XII.  Society. 
   XIII.  Going to Washington. 
    XIV.  The first day of Richard’s absence. 
     XV.  Andy tries to find the root of the matter. 
    XVI.  Washington. 
   XVII.  Richard’s Heir. 
  XVIII.  Days of convalescence. 
    XIX.  Coming to A crisis. 
     XX.  The crisis. 
    XXI.  The result. 
   XXII.  Ethie’s letters. 
  XXIII.  The deserted husband. 
   XXIV.  The investigation. 
    XXV.  In Chicopee. 
   XXVI.  Watching and waiting. 
  XXVII.  Affairs at Olney. 
 XXVIII.  The governor. 
   XXIX.  After years of waiting. 
    XXX.  Ethie’s Sic. 
   XXXI.  Mrs. Dr. Van Buren. 
  XXXII.  Clifton. 
 XXXIII.  The occupant of no. 102. 
  XXXIV.  In Richard’s room. 
   XXXV.  Mrs. Peter pry takes A pack. 
  XXXVI.  In Davenport. 
 XXXVII.  At home. 
XXXVIII.  Richard and Ethelyn. 
  XXXIX.  Reconciliation.

ETHELYN’S MISTAKE

CHAPTER I

ETHELYN

There was a sweet odor of clover blossoms in the early morning air, and the dew stood in great drops upon the summer flowers, and dropped from the foliage of the elm trees which skirted the village common.  There was a cloud of mist upon the meadows, and the windings of the river could be distinctly traced by the white fog which curled above it.  But the fog and the mists were rolling away as the warm June sun came over the eastern hills, and here and there signs of life were visible in the little New England town of Chicopee, where our story opens.  The mechanics who worked in the large shoe-shop halfway down Cottage Row had been up an hour or more, while the hissing of the steam which carried the huge manufactory had been heard since the first robin peeped from its nest in the alders down by the running brook; but higher up, on Bellevue Street, where the old inhabitants lived, everything was quiet, and the loamy road, moist and damp with the dews of the previous night, was as yet unbroken by the foot of man or rut of passing wheel.

The people who lived there, the Mumfords, and the Beechers, and the Grangers, and the Thorns, did not strictly belong to the working class.  They held stocks in railroads, and mortgages on farms, and so could afford to sleep after the shrill whistle from the manufactory had wakened the echoes of the distant hills and sounded across the waters of Pordunk Pond.  Only one dwelling here showed signs of life, and that the large square building, shaded in front with elms