“Ridgeley was changed and lonely since Mabel’s departure, and her own habits were too active to be conformed to those of so small a household.  Indeed, there was nothing for her to do there any longer, so she was glad to avail herself of Mrs. William Sutton’s invitation to stay a while with her.  The children made the house so lively.  In the fall, the house Mr. Dorrance was having built for his Southern bride would be ready for them, and Mabel’s claim upon her aunt’s society and services must take precedence of all others.”

The fall came, and Mabel wrote detailed descriptions of the beautiful home Herbert had prepared for her; wrote, moreover, with more feeling and animation, of the new and precious hopes of happiness held out to her loving heart in the prospect of what the spring would give into her arms, but said nothing of her aunt’s coming to her for the winter, or for an indefinite period, the bounds of which were to be set only by her beloved relative’s wishes.  The omission was trying enough to the foster-mother’s heart and patience, even while she believed the knowledge of it to be confined to herself.  She could still hold up her head bravely among her kindred and acquaintances, and talk of the “dear child’s” good fortune and contentment with it; how popular and beloved she was among them, and what an elegant house her generous husband had bestowed upon her; could still hint at the instability of her own plans, and the possibility that she might, at any day or hour, determine to leave her native State and follow her “daughter” into what the latter represented was not an unpleasant exile.

An end was put to this innocent deception—­for, if any deception can be termed innocent, it is surely that by which he who practises it is himself beguiled—­the blameless guile was then arrested by a story repeated to her by her indignant hosts, as having emanated directly from Mrs. Aylett.  She had given expression, publicly, at a large dinner-party, to her amazement and pity at the self-delusion under which “poor, dear Mrs. Sutton” labored, in expecting to take up her residence with Mr. and Mrs. Dorrance.

“My brother laments her hallucination as much, if not more than his wife does,” she said, in her best modulations of creamy compassion.  “But, indeed, my dear Mrs. Branch, they are not accountable for it.  Not a syllable has ever escaped either of them which a reasonable person could construe into a request that she should become an inmate of their household.  So careful have they been to avoid exciting her expectations in this regard, that they have refrained from extending to her an invitation for even a month.  Those who are most familiar with the poor lady’s peculiarities do not require to be told how ill-advised would be the arrangement she desires.  Mabel is a thoroughly sensible woman, and too devoted a wife to advocate anything so injudicious, while her husband is naturally jealous for her dignity and the inviolability of her authority in her own house.