ily reasons. Before sunset of that day
society was keeping it quiet with the utmost diligence.

These little stories were brought by little birds to New York, so that
when Mrs. Dinks arrived the air was full of hints and suggestions, and
the name of Hope Wayne was not unknown. Farther acquaintance with Mr.
Alfred Dinks had revealed to Miss Fanny that there was a certain wealthy
ancestor still living, in whom the Dinkses had an interest, and that the
only participant with them in that interest was Miss Hope Wayne. That was
enough for Miss Fanny, whose instinct at once assured her that Mrs. Dinks
designed Hope Wayne for her son Alfred, in order that the fortune should
be retained in the family.

Miss Fanny having settled this, and upon farther acquaintance with Mr.
Dinks having discovered that she might as well undertake the matrimonial
management of him as of any other man, and that the Burt fortune would
probably descend, in part at least, to the youth Alfred, she decided that
the youth Alfred must marry her.

But how should Hope Wayne be disposed of? Fanny reflected.

She lived in Delafield. Brother Abel, now nearly nineteen--not a childish
youth--not unhandsome--not too modest--lived also in Delafield. Had he
ever met Hope Wayne?

By skillful correspondence, alluding to the solitude of the country, et
cetera, and his natural wish for society, and what pleasant people were
there in Delafield, Fanny had drawn her lines around Abel to carry the
fact of his acquaintance, if possible, by pure strategy.

In reply, Abel wrote about many things--about Mrs. Kingo and Miss
Broadbraid--the Sutlers and Grabeaus--he praised the peaceful tone of
rural society, and begged Fanny to beware of city dissipation; but not
a word of old Burt and Hope Wayne.

Sister Fanny wrote again in the most confiding manner. Brother Abel
replied in a letter of beautiful sentiments and a quotation from Dr.
Peewee.

He overdid it a little, as we sometimes do in this world. We appear so
intensely unconscious that it is perfectly evident we know that somebody
is looking at us. So Fanny, knowing that Christopher Burt was the richest
man in the village, and lived in a beautiful place, and that his lovely
grand-daughter lived with him constantly, with which information in detail
Alfred Dinks supplied her, and perceiving from Abel's letter that he was
not a recluse, but knew the society of the village, arrived very
naturally and easily at the conclusi