oking man, who had evidently passed a large portion of
his life among scenes of peril and violence. There were more pleasing
traditions of the beautiful wife he brought home to grace the luxurious
dwelling he had fitted up in a style of almost princely splendor,
compared with the plain abode of even the best off people in town. Who
she was, or from whence she came, no one knew certainly. She was very
young--almost a child--when the elder Captain Allen brought her to
S----.

Very little intercourse, I believe, passed between the Allen family and
the town's-people, except in a business way. The first regular entry
made into the house beyond the formal drawing-room, was on the occasion
of a birth, when the best nurse and gossip in town was summoned to
attend the young mistress. A son was born. He was called John; though
not under the sign of Christian baptism--John Allen; afterwards Captain
Allen. The old sea-dog, his father, was absent at the time; but returned
before the infant was four weeks old. The nurse described the meeting
of husband and wife as very lover-like and tender on his part, but with
scarcely a sign of feeling on hers. She did not repel him, nor turn from
him; but received his caresses with the manner of one in whom all quick
emotion had died. And so it continued between them--he thoughtful and
assiduous, and she cold, and for the most part silent. But, to her babe,
the young mother was passionate at times in her loving demonstrations.
The pent up waters of feeling gave way in this direction, and poured
themselves out, often, in a rushing flood. Towards all others she bore
herself with a calm, sweet dignity of manner, that captivated the heart,
and made it sigh for a better acquaintance with one around whom mystery
had hung a veil that no hand but her own could push aside--and that hand
was never lifted.

The next event in the Allen House, noted by the people, was the birth of
a daughter. The same nurse was called in, who remained the usual time,
and then retired; bearing with her a history of the period, which she
related, very confidentially, at tea-tables, and in familiar gossip with
choice spirits of her own.

Those who knew her best, were always something in doubt as to which
of her stories contained truth and which romance. The latter element
mingled largely, it is presumed, in all of them.

A great change had taken place in the Captain's manner. He no longer
played the lover to a cold and dista