hat few
brothers ever are.

The time came when Mellen found the realization of those dreams which
fill every youthful soul: he loved, with all the fire and intensity of a
first passion. His cousin was made the confidant of this love; he shared
Mellen's every thought, and seemed heartily to sympathize with his
feelings.

It is an old story, so I need not dwell upon it. Both friend and
betrothed wife proved false. There came a day when Grantley Mellen found
himself alone with a terrible misery, with no faith left, no trust in
humanity to give a ray of light in the darkness of his betrayal.

The friend whom he had trusted eloped with his affianced bride, and
cheated him out of a large sum of money. With that sudden treachery and
bitter grief, Mellen's youth ended.

He left Elsie at school and went away to Europe, wandering about for
years, and growing more saddened and misanthropic all the while.

He returned at last. Elsie was eighteen then. She had a school-friend,
to whom she had been greatly attached; a girl older than herself, and so
different in every respect, that it was a wonder Elsie's volatile
character had been attracted to her, or that her liking had been
reciprocated.

This was the state of events when Mellen returned from Europe. Elsie's
account of her friend interested him in the unfortunate girl. When he
made her acquaintance that sympathy deepened into a feeling which he had
never thought to have for any woman again,--he loved her, and she was
now his wife.

It was a restless, craving affection, which threatened great trouble
both to himself and its object. He had no cause for jealousy, but his
suspicious mind was always on the alert--he was jealous even of her
friends, her favorite studies--he wanted every look and thought his own,
yet he was too proud to betray these feelings.

Elizabeth's character was not one easy to understand, nor shall I enter
into its details here. The progress of my story must show her as she
really was, and leave you to judge for yourself concerning it, and the
effect it had upon her life.

She was singularly reticent and reserved, but impetuous and warm-hearted
beyond any thing that the man who loved her dreamed of. He saw her gay,
brilliant, fond of society, yet apparently content with the quiet life
he was determined to lead. Still there was something wanting. He felt in
the depths of his heart that he was not master of her whole being. That
sometimes his very kiss