more than mere amusement at my exhibitions of knowledge, or cold admiration for the beauty I strove more than ever to heighten.  If I found him hard to conquer, the exultation when my task was achieved was correspondingly great, while I knew his judgment rebelled against giving his love to one his inferior in those things he best esteemed.  But, to skip a long bit of the story, we were engaged and the marriage day set; but as our intimacy ripened, the conviction grew upon me that I should have a master as well as husband; and I made the discovery, before very long, that the greater part of our time was to be passed at Oaklands, since the solitude best suited his literary tastes.  I knew very well that he would soon get absorbed in those pursuits from which I had been able to draw him for a brief time, and then I would be compelled to satisfy myself with the mild excitement of conjugal affection, housekeeping, and the insipid tea-drinkings for which Cavendish has been noted.  Not very long after our engagement, I met, at a grand society ball, George Le Grande.  He professed to have fallen in love with me at first sight, and his wooing had all the passionate ardor of a Southern nature; for he was born in the Sunny South, his father being a wealthy French planter.  After my betrothed’s somewhat Platonic love, his passionate worship was acceptable, and, as the hour of my pastoral life at Cavendish drew near, my fancy turned, irresistibly, towards the free, gay life Le Grande offered me.  We had grown so intimate I confessed to him my repugnance to the mild joys awaiting me.  Here I made my great mistake; for, with his brilliant imagination, he drew charming pictures of what our life might be, tied to no particular spot, but free to roam, citizens of all lands.  My trousseau was nearly completed; but the choosing and trying on of fine garments did not still the mutinous thoughts seething in my brain.  One evening—­shall I forget it in a thousand years?—­while Mr. Winthrop was at Oaklands, overseeing some special preparations to do honor to the home-coming of his bride, I met Le Grande at a ball.  He danced superbly, and he was my partner that evening in so many dances that my chaperone began to look darkly at me; while I saw many a meaning glance directed at us.  But I was fancying myself more in love with my gay partner than ever, and once, in a pause of the dances, when he whispered, ’If to-night would only last forever, with you at my side, I should be content.’

“I came swiftly to the conclusion that life without George Le Grande would be tasteless, and resolved then and there to yield to his entreaties and fly from my solemn bridegroom.  But my mind was wavering, and I kept putting it off until the very night before my marriage morn that was to be.  We left the city by a midnight train, and after travelling until morning we stopped at a country village—­really I forget the name, if I ever knew it—­and were married in a little country church by a dull,