spot, but free to roam, citizens of all lands.
My trousseau was nearly completed; but the choosing and trying on of fine
garments did not still the mutinous thoughts seething in my brain. One
evening--shall I forget it in a thousand years?--while Mr. Winthrop was
at Oaklands, overseeing some special preparations to do honor to the
home-coming of his bride, I met Le Grande at a ball. He danced superbly,
and he was my partner that evening in so many dances that my chaperone
began to look darkly at me; while I saw many a meaning glance directed at
us. But I was fancying myself more in love with my gay partner than ever,
and once, in a pause of the dances, when he whispered, 'If to-night would
only last forever, with you at my side, I should be content.'

"I came swiftly to the conclusion that life without George Le Grande
would be tasteless, and resolved then and there to yield to his
entreaties and fly from my solemn bridegroom. But my mind was wavering,
and I kept putting it off until the very night before my marriage morn
that was to be. We left the city by a midnight train, and after
travelling until morning we stopped at a country village--really I forget
the name, if I ever knew it--and were married in a little country church
by a dull, old minister who regarded us suspiciously all the time he was
performing the ceremony. I was sure he thought us a runaway couple,
but that did not trouble me so much as that obscure marriage with a
heavy-looking pair brought in from a cottage near at hand to witness the
ceremony. I kept contrasting it with the stately ceremony that was to
have taken place nearly at the same hour, in old Trinity, with the organ
pealing forth the wedding march, the rush of guests and sight-seers,
orange blossoms and perfumes, and all the bewildering vanities of a
fashionable wedding. Before I had signed my maiden name for the last
time, I began to regret my rash step, and ere the month was ended the
thorns of my ill-advised sowing were springing up around me. We were
neither of us so constituted as to make the best of a bad bargain, and
our married life had scarce begun when we began magnifying each other's
failings, and soon our brief passion had burnt itself out. Ah, me! with
what regret I used to look back to this quiet town, and the stately calm
of Oaklands, after one of our vulgar quarrels. I learned too soon that
my husband was a gambler, and that my fortune had been a more coveted
prize than myse