oint me."

The girl's steps were hardly out of hearing when Vesta opened the drawer
of the library-table and took out a package of papers tied with a
string. She unloosed it, and her father recognized from where he sat his
notes of hand and mortgages.

"Gracious God, my darling!" exclaimed Judge Custis, "how came you by
those papers?"

"They are to be mine to-night, father--in one hour. The moment they
become mine they will be yours."

"Why, Vessy," said the Judge, "if they are yours even to keep a minute,
the shortest way with them is up the chimney!"

He made a stride forward to take them from her hand. She laid them in
her lap and looked at him so calmly that he stopped.

"You may burn the house, papa," she said, "it is still your own. But
these papers you could only burn by a crime. It would be cheating an
honorable man."

"Honorable! Who?" the Judge exclaimed.

"He who is to be my husband."

"You marry Meshach Milburn!" shouted the Judge, "O curse of God!--not
him?"

"Yes, this night," answered Vesta; "I respect him. I hold these
obligations by his trust in me. They are my engagement ring."

Judge Custis raised a loud howl like a man into whom a nail is driven,
and fell at his daughter's feet and clasped her knees.

"This is to torture me," he cried; "he has not dared to ask you, Vesta?"

"Yes, and my word is passed, father. Shall that word, the word of a
Custis, be less than a Milburn's faith. By the love he bore me, Mr.
Milburn gave me these debts for my dower--a rare faith in one so
prudent. If I do not marry him, they will be given back to him this
night."

"Then give them back, my child, and save your soul and your purity, lest
I live to be cursed with the sight of my noble daughter's shame? This
marriage will be unholy, and the censure to follow it will be the
bankruptcy of more than our estate--of our simple fame and old family
respect. We have friends left who would help us. If you marry Milburn,
they will all despise and repudiate us."

"I do not believe it," said Vesta. "The sense and courage of that
gentleman--he is a gentleman, for I have seen him, and a gentleman of
many gifts--will compel respect even where false pride and family
pretension appear to put him down. Who that underrates him will make any
considerable sacrifice to assist us? Your sons,--will they do it? Then
by what right do they decide my marriage choice? No, father, I only do
my part to support our house in its extre