dence. So successful was Spikeman, that he
persuaded Master Dunning to embark a considerable portion of his
property in the business wherein Spikeman was engaged, and on the
death of Dunning, which happened only six months thereafter, to
appoint him the guardian of Eveline. But as the shadows of this world
were settling on the eyelids of the dying man, the light of another
and a better dawned upon his mind. The differences of opinion which
had separated him from the friends of his youth and manhood, and the
distinctions of rank, assumed less and less importance. He regarded
with pity the sadness of his daughter, and determined that he would be
no obstacle in the way of her happiness. He called her and his friend
to his bed-side, and after kissing her pale cheek, gave his full
consent to her union with Arundel, and made Spikeman promise to favor
her wishes in all things. Having thus settled his worldly affairs,
Edmund Dunning turned his face to the wall and gave up the ghost.

The tears of Eveline, left an orphan far away from the only spot which
she considered her home, flowed bitterly at the loss of her father. He
had been a gentle and sweet-tempered man, and an indulgent parent, and
she thought of him with a grief and yearning affection, the pain of
which the removal of the interdiction to her marriage with one whom
she loved, served at first, but in a slight degree, to mitigate. But
time had its usual effect. The swollen eyes of poor Eveline at last
resumed their brightness; the color returned to her cheeks; her step
became lighter, and she looked forward wish pleasure to the time when
she should give her hand to one who already had her heart.

But Spikeman was far from sympathizing with her views, nor had he any
intention to keep his promise. At the time when he inveigled Edmund
Dunning into entrusting property to his hands, his affairs were in an
embarrassed condition, and he needed then and now the funds to save
him from ruin. And again, hypocrite though he was in some respects, he
was not altogether so. A man of violent passions, and unscrupulous in
their gratification, deluding himself with the idea that having once
tasted the sweets of justification, (as he fancied,) his condition was
one of safety, and that the sins which reigned in the members of his
body could not reach his soul, he was yet zealous for the faith which
he had adopted, and devoted to the interests of the colony. It was to
this devotion mainly