She might make her choice from almost any of those who seek her society, and she is not the pretty little Bohemian that I imagined.  Either none of them has ever touched her heart, or else she knows her value and vantage, and she means to make the most of them.  If she knew the wealth and position I could give her immediately, would not these certainties bring a different expression into her eyes?  I am not an ogre, that she should shrink from me as the only incumbrance.”

Could he have seen the girl’s passion after he left her he would have understood her dark look at their parting.  Hastily seeking her own room she locked the door to hide the tears of anger and humiliation that would come.

“Well,” she cried, “I am punished for trifling with others.  Here is a man who seeks me in my home for no other purpose than his own amusement and the gratification of his curiosity.  He could not deny it when brought squarely to the issue.  He could not look me in the eyes and say that he was my honest friend.  He would flirt with me, if he could, to beguile his burdensome leisure; but when I defined what some are to me, and more would be, if permitted, he found no better refuge than gallantry and evasion.  What can he mean? what can he hope except to see me in his power, and ready to accept any terms he may choose to offer?  O Arthur Strahan! your wish now is wholly mine.  May I have the chance of rejecting this man as I never dismissed one before!”

It must not be supposed that Willard’s frequent visits to the Vosburgh cottage had escaped Mrs. Merwyn’s vigilant solicitude, but her son spoke of them in such a way that she obtained the correct impression that he was only amusing himself.  Her chief hope was that her son would remain free until the South had obtained the power it sought.  Then an alliance with one of the leading families in the Confederacy would accomplish as much as might have resulted from active service during the struggle.  She had not hesitated to express this hope to him.

He had smiled, and said:  “One of the leading theories of the day is the survival of the fittest.  I am content to limit my theory to a survival.  If I am alive and well when your great Southern empire takes the lead among nations there will be a chance for the fulfilment of your dream.  If I have disappeared beneath Southern mud there won’t be any chance.  In my opinion, however, I should have tenfold greater power with our Southern friends if I introduced to them an English heiress.”

His mother had sighed and thought:  “It is strange that this calculating boy should be my son.  His father was self-controlled and resolute, but he never manifested such cold-blooded thought of self, first and always.”