“As you represent the interests of Mrs. Montgomery,” said I, “is it not your duty to look a little closer into this matter?”

“It is; and I shall give it immediate attention.”

He did so, and to his surprise, found that all the bank stock had been sold, and transferred.  It was now plain to him where at least a part of the funds being so liberally expended on the mill property of Squire Floyd came from.  On venturing to make some inquiries of Judge Bigelow bearing on the subject, that individual showed an unusual degree of irritation, and intimated, in terms not to be misunderstood, that he thought himself competent to manage any business he might undertake, and did not feel disposed to tolerate any intermeddling.”

From that time, Wallingford saw that a separation from his old preceptor was inevitable; and he so shaped events, that in less than three months he made the separation easy and natural, and took an office to himself alone.

Still there was no movement on the part of the executors in regard to the valuable estate in their hands.  Summer and fall passed, and Christmas saw the splendid improvements of Squire Floyd completed, and the new mill in operation, under the vigorous power of steam.  The product thus secured was almost fabulous in the eyes of the half asleep and awake people of S——­, many of whom could hardly imagine people enough in the country to consume the miles of cloth that came streaming out from the rattling looms.  And yet, we were informed, that more than quadruple this product could be sold by the extensive house of Floyd, Lawson, Lee, & Co.; and that all that stood in the way of creating a magnificent fortune out of cotton bales, was the lack of productive facilities.

During this winter I saw more than usual of Mrs. Dewey.  She came up from New York with her nurse and child, a babe not quite a year old, and spent over six weeks with her parents.  She had lost, in the two years which had passed since her marriage, nearly all those beautiful traits of character which made her once so charming.  Fashionable city life seemed to have spoiled her altogether.  Her mind had not grown in the right direction.  She had wholly abandoned that tasteful reading through which intellectual refinement comes; and to all appearance, no longer cared for anything beyond the mere sensuous.  Nothing in S——­had any interest for her; and she scarcely took the pains to conceal her contempt for certain sincere and worthy people, who felt called upon, for the sake of her parents, to show her some attention.  She was not happy, of course.  When in repose; I noticed a discontented look on her face.  Her eyes had lost that clear, innocent, almost child-like beauty of expression, that once made you gaze into them; and now had a cold, absent, or eagerly longing expression, as if her thought were straining itself forward towards some coveted good.