an, actually
favored it--though from the less worthy motive of economy. What was the
use of spending money to pay her board, and nursing, and medical
attendance, in the asylum, when she might be boarded and nursed and
doctored so much cheaper at home? For the old man confidently looked
forward to the time when the poor, fragile, failing creature would sink
into the grave, and Thurston would become her heir. And he calculated
that every dollar they could save of her income would be so much added
to the inheritance when Thurston should come into it.

Very soon after Thurston's return home his grandfather gave him to
understand the conditions upon which he intended to make him his heir.
They were two in number, viz., first, that Thurston should never leave
him again while he lived; and, secondly, that he should never marry
without his consent. "For I don't wish to be left alone in my old age,
my dear boy; nor do I wish to see you throw yourself away upon any girl
whose fortune is less than the estate I intend to bequeath entire to
yourself."

CHAPTER XII.

MARIAN, THE INSPIRER.

It was not fortunate for old Mr. Willcoxen's plans that his grandson
should have met Marian Mayfield. For, on the morning of Thurston's first
meeting with the charming girl, when he turned his horse's head from the
arched gateway of Old Field Cottage and galloped off, "a haunting shape
and image gay" attended him.

It was that of beautiful Marian, with her blooming face and sunny hair,
and rounded roseate neck and bosom and arms, all softly, delicately
flushed with the pure glow of rich, luxuriant vitality, as she stood in
the sunlight, under the arch of azure morning-glories, with her graceful
arms raised in the act of binding up the vines.

At first this "image fair" was almost unthought of; he was scarcely
conscious of the haunting presence, or the life and light it gradually
diffused through his whole being. And when the revelation dawned upon
his intellect, he smiled to himself and wondered if, for the first time,
he was falling in love; and then he grew grave, and tried to banish the
dangerous thought. But when, day after day, amid all the business and
the pleasures of his life, the "shape" still pursued him, instead of
getting angry with it or growing weary of it, he opened his heart and
took it in, and made it at home, and set it upon a throne, where it
reigned supreme, diffusing delight over all his nature. But soon, too
so