lly the Forces had married among their own people, according to the
time-honored custom of the country. Indeed, they had invariably done so up
to the present generation, when young Abel Force was master of Mondreer.

Great, therefore, was the consternation of the whole community when the
heir of Mondreer, the handsomest, the wealthiest and the most accomplished
among the young men of the county, if not of the whole State, instead of
marrying some cousin or companion whom everybody knew all about, had,
while on his travels abroad, forgotten all the venerable traditions of his
native place, and "gone and wedded a stranger and foreigner" whom no one
knew, or could find out anything about, except that she was as handsome as
Juno, as haughty as Lucifer, and as poor as Lazarus.

However, as soon as it was ascertained that the newly married couple were
quite established at Mondreer, the county people began to call on
them--some from curiosity, some from etiquette, some from neighborly
kindness, others because Mondreer was one of the pleasantest houses in the
world to visit, and many from a mixture of several or of all these
motives.

And every one who went to see the bride came back with such accounts of
her grace, her beauty and her elegance that she became the standing theme
of conversation at all the tea tables and bar rooms of the county.

They were certainly a very handsome couple. He was a tall, finely formed,
stately man, with a Roman profile, brown complexion, dark eyes and
jet-black hair and beard. She was a tall, elegant and graceful blonde,
with Grecian features, a blooming complexion, dark blue eyes, and rich,
sunny, golden-brown hair.

Theirs had evidently been a love match--a real, poetic, romantic,
sentimental love match of the oldest-fashioned pattern.

He thought that he had found in her the very pearl, or rose, or star of
womanhood--and so even thought many other men, when basking in her smiles,
to be sure.

She thought that she had discovered in him the man of men.

In a word, they really adored one another. Each lived only for the other.
Each would have suffered or died to save the other a single pang.

Even when, in time, children came to them, though they loved the little
ones with more than usual parental affection, yet they loved them less
than they loved each other.

Yet, with everything to make them blessed, it was cautiously whispered in
the neighborhood that the household of Mondreer was n