disposition; but it required all Mrs. Hamilton's eloquence to
persuade Emmeline she should rather rejoice than grieve that Mary had
found some one to supply her place. But vainly Emmeline tried in
playfulness to infect her brother Herbert with a portion of her
jealousy, for she knew not the contents of those letters Mary ever wrote
to Herbert, or she would not for one moment have imagined that either
Lord Delmont or St. Eval would usurp her brother's place.

"Few things would give me greater pleasure," one of Mary's letters said,
"than to see the union of Lord St. Eval and my fair friend. It appears
to me strange that each, with affections disengaged, can remain blind to
the fascination of the other. They are well suited in every respect,
and I should fancy their union would certainly be a fair promise of
happiness. I live in hope, though as yet, I must confess, hope has but
very little to feed on."

St. Eval still lingered at Monte Rosa, and it was well for the
inhabitants he did, for an event occurred which plunged that happy
valley from joy and gaiety into wailing and affliction, and even for a
brief interval infected the inhabitants of Oakwood with its gloom. Death
came, and tore away as his victim the widow's son, the orphan's brother.
The title of Delmont became extinct, for the last scion of that ancient
race had gone to his last home. He had gone with St. Eval and some other
young men on a fishing expedition, at some distance; a sudden squall had
arisen, and dispersing with much damage the little flotilla, compelled
the crews of each to seek their own safety. The sails of St. Eval's boat
were not furled quickly enough to escape the danger; it upset, and
though, after much buffeting and struggling with the angry waters, St.
Eval succeeded in bearing his insensible friend to land, his
constitution had received too great a shock, and he lingered but a few
brief weeks ere he was released from suffering. He had been thrown with
violence against a rock, producing a concussion of the brain, which,
combined with the length of time he was under water, produced fever, and
finally death.

On the agony of the bereaved mother and sister it would be useless to
linger. St. Eval forgot his individual sorrows, and devoted himself,
heart and soul, in relieving those helpless sufferers, in which painful
task he was ably seconded by Mary and her mother, whose letters to their
friends at Oakwood, in that season of affliction, spok