friends, fortune or name. In spite of this secret antipathy to the
match, Mrs. De Beaumont openly pretended the greatest friendship for
Beatrice, for, being a woman of the world, she saw clearly how
matters would stand in a few years, and she could not afford to
break either with her brother or his intended wife.

The wedding came off with all the aristocratic splendor of an F. F. V.
ceremonial. The dusky coachmen and footmen were resplendent with
gorgeous liveries and wedding favors, their white teeth glistening
in the sun as they grinned from ear to ear, perfectly happy and
contented. After the ceremony the newly-married pair went for a
brief tour through the Eastern States and Canada, returning to
Mr. Hartley's plantation, where Mrs. Hartley was called upon by all
the leading families in the vicinity, and took her place with as
much grace as though she had been "to the manner born." Mrs. De
Beaumont greeted her sister-in-law affectionately (at least to all
outward appearances), and invited her to visit her old home
frequently; in fact all those who were aware (and who was not) that
Mr. Hartley had settled every penny of his fortune on his wife and
her prospective offspring were lavish of their attentions to their
beautiful, and now immensely wealthy, neighbor.

When her first baby, a little girl, was born, Mrs. Hartley wept
bitterly and refused (like Rachel) to be comforted. Her husband
could not understand it at all, and was greatly grieved that she
should be so down-hearted when they had both every reason, to be
happy. Beatrice besought him to forgive her weakness, and explained
that it was only now that she was a mother that she fully realized
the anguish her own mother must have suffered at parting with her,
and she implored him as he loved her to exert himself to find her