thlan Castle. Rivalry for the hand
of Esther Pendarrel disturbed their affection soon after Henry
succeeded to the estates, and it gave place to hatred, when Philip
carried off the prize and assumed his wife's name. Rumour said, that
nothing but Henry's positive refusal to submit to this condition, led
to his rejection.

For once rumour was probably right. The families of Trevethlan and
Pendarrel had long lived in the usual friendship of neighbours,
frequently intermarrying, but never united under one head. When,
however, circumstances made Esther sole heiress of her house, it
seemed likely that this might at last occur, and that the name of
Pendarrel might merge in that of Trevethlan. The lady's own attention
was attracted to this contingency by a little altercation she happened
to overhear between two peasants, respecting the prophecy already
quoted.

"Well, Jem," said one, "ye see Pendar'l's like to come to Trevethlan
without a bride from under the thatch. 'T is a bonny lady whereby
they'll own one name."

"Do not ye think it, Robin," answered the other. "The saying's as old
as Carn Dew. My lady's not one to sink her name: there's that in her
eye tells another tale."

When Esther heard these remarks, the first rustic seemed to be much
nearer the truth than the second; for Henry Trevethlan was so close an
attendant upon her, that it could not be supposed that his assiduity
was unwelcome. But she had been trained in a sufficiently high sense
of her own importance; and the peasant's words made her ponder, and
roused the pride which had almost been laid to sleep by love. She
quarrelled with Henry, and married Philip.

Her first lover endeavoured to forget his disappointment in the
excitement of play. She, always hoping to realize the prediction in
her own sense, rejoiced in adding the estates which he sold, one after
another, to the already extensive domains of Pendarrel. By degrees,
she thus drove the enemy into his citadel, and beleaguered him on all
sides, trusting at last to starve him into submission. And now that
the defence had fallen into young and inexperienced hands, she rushed
eagerly to the assault, heralding it with the demand for a
capitulation, contained in the letter she caused her husband to write.

He, poor man, did not count for much in his wife's arrangements. At
home, he was nearly a nonentity; abroad, he held a subordinate place
of some importance under Government. His official consequence c