"I shall not go now; it is too early for that, but if Nina
continues worse, I will come to her the latter part of October. I
am writing so to her to-day."

Richard was confounded, and could only stammer out,

"Who is to be your escort?"

"You, Richard;" and Edith clasped his arm, thus reassuring him at
once.

She had some thought, some consideration for him; she did not
intend to desert him wholly, and he playfully tapped her chin,
laughing to think how the little lady had boldly taken matters
into her own hands, telling what should be with as much sang froid
as if she were master instead of himself. And Richard rather liked
the independent spirit of Edith, particularly when he found that
he was not wholly left out of her calculations. And so he arranged
with Mr. Russell, that if Nina were not better as the autumn
advanced, Edith should perhaps go down to see her.

Arthur had made his marriage with Nina public as soon as he
returned to Sunnybank, but as Mr. Russell's home was in
Tallahassee, and he himself a quiet, taciturn man, he had not
heard of it, and in speaking of Nina to Edith, he called her Miss
Bernard, as usual, and thus Richard still remained in ignorance,
never suspecting that golden haired Nina was the same young girl
he had married years before.