itary lines and brought back to a partial
allegiance. New questions are rising into importance. We pass from the
consideration of causes to that of results. It is a different and a
difficult work to forecast the future. It is a perilous experiment to
enact the prophet or seer, but in another paper we shall venture at
least upon some suggestions which may have their uses in modulating that
national destiny which none of us have the power actually to create or
even to foretell.

WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?

'Do but grasp into the thick of human life! Every one _lives_ it--to
not many is it _known_; and seize it where you will, it is
interesting.'--GOETHE.

'SUCCESSFUL.--Terminating in accomplishing what is wished or
intended.'--WEBSTER'S _Dictionary_.

CHAPTER XI.

Miss Arabella Thorne was the daughter of an old citizen of New York, a
worthy man, a plumber by trade, who, by means of plenty of work, small
competition, and high prices, managed to scrape together fifty or sixty
thousand dollars, which from time to time he judiciously invested in
real estate. Late in life he married a tall, lean, sour-visaged
spinster, considerably past thirty, with nothing whatever to recommend
her except that she belonged to one of the first families. The fact is,
she was a poor relation, and had all her life been passed around from
cousin to cousin, each endeavoring to shift the burden as quick as
possible. As she grew older she became more fretful and ill tempered,
until it was a serious question with all interested how to dispose of
her. Of late years she had taken to novel reading, and when engaged with
a favorite romance, she was so peevish and irritable, that, to use a
common expression, there was no living with her.

Things were at this pass when Thorn (he spelled his name without an
_e_) was called to do some work at the house of Mr. de Silver, an uncle
of the 'poor relation,' with whom she was then staying. This gentleman,
who for years had been at his wits' end to know what to do with his
niece, conceived the design of marrying her to Thorn, who was in good
circumstances, and could give her a comfortable home. It so happened
that she was at that time absorbed with a novel (she always fancied
herself the heroine) where the principal character was called on to make
a sacrifice, and by so doing married a nobleman in disguise. She
therefore was ready; but it was not without some difficulty that Thorn
was brought into the arrang