act of a letter to
him from Camden should connect him with the child. It was a groundless
fear; but he had now fully resolved not to disturb his father's peace by
acknowledging his own disobedience.

For four months he studied so diligently that his friend began to fear
he would impair his health. Every day found him more cheerful than the
last; and it was plain enough that youth and time were rapidly
conquering his grief. He began to go into society again, and the
presence of the ladies was not altogether repulsive to him. In June,
with Tom as his companion, he went home to spend the summer.

His father commented upon his altered appearance, but Tom insisted that
it was because he had studied so hard. He had not only read law, but had
learned the Spanish language, so that he could converse fluently in it.
The vacation wonderfully recruited his health, and in the autumn the
students returned to their southern home. Edward studied as diligently
as ever. Youth had wholly conquered his grief, and he was as before. He
sent money regularly to Mrs. Wayland; but he expressed no desire to see
his child, though he declared to Tom that the little one still had a
place in his heart, and that he intended at some future time to
acknowledge it.

Edward boarded with his friend's father, who had a daughter. She was but
sixteen when Edward first became a member of the family. She was
nineteen now, and the young northerner began to be tenderly impressed
towards her, though his attentions did not begin till his wife had been
dead over a year. The attraction was mutual, and Edward wrote to his
father about it. The old gentleman was pleased, and facetiously remarked
that he had all along supposed there was something or somebody in New
Orleans, besides Tom or the law, that had drawn him there for three
winters. He hadn't the slightest objection. Edward could _now_ please
himself in that respect, as in every other. The "now" was heavily
underscored, and the son had no difficulty in understanding his meaning.
It was known that all the Medways were dead, and the Honorable Mr.
Montague could no longer object to any match his heir might choose to
make.

The marriage was deferred till the next year, when Edward's father and
mother made a winter tour to New Orleans. The great event was duly
chronicled in the newspapers, and the young couple made a bridal tour to
Europe, where they spent a year. On their return an elegant residence,
next to the