s the rich heiress now stood in the world's eye
above the portionless and dependent sister.

Nor was this all--there was a sterner, harder, and more wicked feeling
yet, springing up in her heart, and whispering the sweetness of
revenge--revenge on that amiable and gentle sister, who, so far from
wronging her, had loved her ever with the tenderest and most
affectionate love, who would have sacrificed her dearest wishes to her
welfare--but whom, in the hardness of her embittered spirit, she could
now see only as an intruder upon her own just rights, a rival on the
stage of fashion, perhaps in the interests of the heart--whom she
already envied, suspected, almost hated.

And Blanche, at that self-same moment, had resolved to keep watch on
her own heart narrowly, and to observe her sister's bearing toward
George Delawarr, that in case she should perceive her favoring his
suit, she might at once crush down the germ of rising passion, and
sacrifice her own to her dear sister's happiness.

Alas! Blanche! Alas! Agnes!

Thus they strolled onward, silently and slowly, until they reached the
little green before the summer-house, which was then the gayest and
most lightsome place that can be imagined, with its rare paintings
glowing in their undimmed hues, its gilding bright and burnished, its
furniture all sumptuous and new, and instead of the dark funereal ivy,
covered with woodbine and rich clustered roses. The windows were all
thrown wide open to the perfumed summer air, and the warm light poured
in through the gaps in the tree-tops, and above the summits of the
then carefully trimmed hedgerows, blithe and golden.

They entered and sat down, still pensive and abstracted; but erelong
the pleasant and happy influences of the time and place appeared to
operate in some degree on the feelings of both, but especially on the
tranquil and well-ordered mind of the elder sister. She raised her
head suddenly, and was about to speak, when the rapid sound of horses'
feet, unheard on the soft sand until they were hard by, turned her
attention to the window, and the next moment the two young cavaliers,
who were even then uppermost in her mind, came into view, cantering
along slowly on their well-managed chargers.

Her eye was not quicker than those of the gallant riders, who, seeing
the ladies, whom they had ridden over to visit, sitting by the windows
of the summer-house, checked their horses on the instant, and doffed
their plumed ha