ost fortunate
thing for Anna, who could not, of course, expect to make so eligible
a match as her more brilliant sister, while others--the sensible
portion--wondered, pitied, and blamed, attributing the whole to the
ambitious mother, whose agency in her son's marriage was now
generally known. At Maple Grove closets, chairs, tables, and sofas
were loaded down with finery, and like an automaton, Anna stood up
while they fitted to her the rich white satin, scarcely whiter than
her own face, and Mrs. Livingstone, when she saw her daughter's
indifference, would pinch her bloodless cheeks, wondering how she
could care so little for her good fortune.

Unnatural mother!--from the little grave on the sunny slope, now
grass-grown and green, came there no warning voice to stay her in her
purpose? No; she scarcely thought of Mabel now, and with unflinching
determination she kept on her way.

But there was one who, night and day, pondered in her mind the best
way of saving Anna from the living death to which she would surely
awake, when it was too late. At last she resolved on going herself
to Captain Atherton, telling him just how it was, and if there was a
spark of generosity in his nature, she thought he would release her
cousin. But this plan required much caution, for she would not have
her uncle's family know of it, and if she failed, she preferred that
it should be kept a secret from the world. There was then no
alternative but to go in the night, and alone. She did not now often
sit with the family, and she knew they would not miss her. So, one
evening when they were as usual assembled in the parlor, she stole
softly from the house, and managing to pass the negro quarters
unobserved, she went down to the lower stable, where she saddled the
pony she was now accustomed to ride, and leading him by a circuitous
path out upon the turnpike, mounted and rode away.

The night was moonless, and the starlight obscured by heavy clouds,
but the pale face and golden curls of Anna, for whose sake she was
there alone, gleamed on her in the darkness, and 'Lena was not
afraid. Once--twice--she thought she caught the sound of another
horse's hoofs, but when she stopped to listen, all was still, and
again she pressed forward, while her pursuer (for 'Lena was followed)
kept at a greater distance. Durward had been to Frankfort, and on
his way home had stopped at Maple Grove to deliver a package.
Stopping only a moment, he reached th