
w 


ill 


FASHIONABLE 


DISSIPATION. 


METTA V. FULLER. 


G. G. EYA NS, 

439 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 
1858. 


Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 
J. W. BRADLEY, 

IB the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 


ADVERTISMENT. 

THE writer of " FAsmONABLE DISSIPATION " has made 
for herself an enviable reputation as the author of" THE 
SENATOR S SON," and our readers will recognize in the first 
story the same force of style and brilliancy of narrative 
which rendered her former effort so widely popular. 

The publishers flatter themselves that the present volume 
will be received with favor and that the high moral tone of 
both tales will be justly appreciated. 


M146551 


CONTENTS. 


PAG*. 

FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. BY METTA V. FULLER. 7 
ADBLA LINCOLN. BY M. F. CABBY. 171 


Iraipation. 

BY METTA VICTORIA FULLER. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE Lee family was out on the piazza enjoying the 
freshness of the evening. The sun was only just 
setting, but a cool breeze had begun to blow from 
the clouds which were flitting up the western sky. 

Mr. Lee, the father, was reading the papers which 
he had brought from the village post-office ; Mar 
garet was deeply absorbed in an illustrated magazine 
which had arrived with the papers ; Rosa was out on 
the lawn enjoying the sunset; and Lily, the youngest, 
was pulling Towser s ears. As for Frederick, the 
lion of the family, he deserves a paragraph by him 
self. He was sauntering idly up and down the long 
piazza, an expression of listless discontent upon his 
face and his hands in his pockets. He varied the 


8 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

sameness of his occupation by occasionally breaking 
forth in a low, repining, long, melancholy whistle 
by pulling Lily s ears harder than she pulled Tow- 
ser s by accidentally brushing the book out of Mar 
garet s hand as he passed her, and then whistling 
more despairing than ever. At last, seeing that 
Rosa, who had been darting about like a humming 
bird among the flowers, had seated herself on the 
grass and was wreathing some roses together, he 
made a sudden bound which startled old Mr. Lee 
half out of his chair, and, without touching the steps, 
alighted on the ground by her side. 

" That exertion was too great for this tiresome 
weather," he said, dropping upon the grass and fling 
ing his head back into his sister s lap. 

" Tiresome weather," repeated she, softly, begin 
ning to stick the roses which lay in a little heap by 
her side, grotesquely into the jetty curls which 
streamed even to her knee. " Why, the air is full 
of sweets, the sky makes one dream of Italy every 
thing is beautiful to-night. For my part, I am 
happy." 

" Of course you are happy, Rosa ; you always are. 
Besides, I know ! somebody is coming this evening, 
which would make darkness seem bright to you. / 
am not in love, which accounts for my being capable 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 9 

of feeling weariness. The truth is, I feel dull 
miserably dull stupid listless ! I long for some 
thing to thrill, to excite me ; to startle my pulses, 
my fancies and feelings into new life. I wish I had 
a glass of wine to-night none of your dregs of 
logwood nor even your sparkling Catawba but a 
draught such as Keats speaks of, such as the gods 
of old were inspired with a jewelled goblet : 

0, for a beaker full of the warm South, 
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, 

With bearded bubbles winking at the brim, 
And purple-stained mouth ! 

and you should be my Hebe, crowned with roses, 
beautiful, tender, presenting me with the charmed 
vintage draught ! 

"I should be a poor Hebe, Fred, for the first 
thing I should do would be to pour the delicious 
redness out upon the earth and bring you, instead, 
water from the crystal spring." 

" Oh, nonsense ! you cowardly little thing ! then 
I should punish you thus !" and pulling the comb 
out of her hair, down came her curls over her face 
and neck. " There ! that looks fine and Charlie 
will be here before you can get them in order 
again." 


10 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

" You are too bad," cried Rosa, colouring with 
momentary indignation. 

And he was too bad, for she had spent half an 
hour in arranging her beautiful hair in such a man 
ner as to please Charlie s fastidious eye. 

" There he comes now," he cried, holding Rosa 
tightly, who was struggling to free herself and get to 
her chamber. " You need not flutter so, my birdie : 
he shall see you first as you are, looking like a 
fright." 

Brothers are, proverbially, hectors and tyrants to 
their sisters ; but Fred would hardly have enjoyed 
Rosa s confusion as much, had he not observed that 
she grew prettier all the time. Her cheeks wero 
glowing, and her curls went dancing and glittering 
around them, as if they enjoyed the mischief. 

" Oh, dear," said the fair girl piteously, to the 
young gentleman who approached them, " I have not 
had a moment s peace since Fred came home. He 
is such a plague. I wish you would call him out, 
Mr. Lennard, and avenge my sufferings." 

" He is himself so nearly dead from a wound re 
ceived from the grand master of wars and duels, that 
he has not life enough left to challenge me," con 
tinued Frederick, laughing, as Mr. Lennard, instead 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 11 

of answering her merry appeal, stood gazing in silent 
admiration upon her countenance. 

" I throw the falsehood back in your face," cried 
the visitor, in the same tone, stooping to conceal a 
blush, and gathering up a handful of roses, which he 
flung in his opponent s face. 

The two young men, full of the gayety of twenty- 
two, began pelting each other with flowers and 
epithets about as hard to bear, while Rosa stole off 
to arrange her toilet whispering to Margaret, as she 


" How handsome they both are, Maggie." 

Maggie was in the midst of a love story, but look 
ing up at her sister s speech, she could not but ac 
knowledge that the heroes of her story were in all 
probability inferior to those she saw standing between 
her and the glowing western sky. 

Frederick was not only the oldest child and the 
only son, but he was exceedingly good-looking, by 
which he was in triple danger of being spoiled. The 
listlessness had vanished from his manner under the 
excitement of the moment, and his handsome fea 
tures glowed with the natural brightness of his bold, 
frank, audacious spirit. 

Some of the roses which his sister had placed in 
them still clung to his ringlets, which were tossed 


12 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

back and fluttering in the wind. He was of elegant 
stature, and half looked, as he threw himself into an 
attitude to repel the fragrant missiles which were 
hurled at him, like one of the gods whose nectar he 
had longed to drink. 

His friend and Rosa s lover, Charles Lennard, was 
of slighter make and paler beauty, with deep blue 
eyes and waving light hair. Margaret forgot her 
book while regarding the graceful pair until they 
were tired of the frolic and came and sat upon the 
steps at her feet. Lily, too, was weary of teasing 
Towser, and she crept into the maiden s lap, and 
laid there sleepily, while Mr. Lee, it growing too 
dark to read, folded up his paper. Rosa came back 
with her hair demurely smooth and the whole 
family fell into a pleasant idle talk. 

Old Mr. Lee was one of those gentleman who ride 
a hobby his was Temperance ; and as something 
he had been reading reminded him of his favorite 
topic, it was not long until he found occasion to say 
something about it. " And, by the way," he con 
cluded, after some remarks he had made upon the 
effort which was then beginning to awaken public at 
tention the abolition of intoxicating drinks by law 
&lt; there is to be a meeting in the Town Hall, to- 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 13 

morrow evening, when this question is to be discussed. 
You must all go, my children." 

" Oh, papa, don t compel us to go to any more 
Temperance meetings. They are the same old stories 
and coarse anecdotes over and over," said Rosa, im 
patiently. 

" We are tired of them," added Margaret, more 
gently. 

u But this is to he a meeting of more than ordi 
nary interest. The subject will assume a somewhat 
new form. Besides, girls, I am to be one of the 
speakers." 

" Well, papa, that is another reason why we might 
as well stay at home ; for you know we hear you 
speak upon temperance every day of our lives. I 
can begin now and give this select audience the sum 
and substance of what you will say !" and the saucy, 
beautiful girl, laughed as she clasped her hands af 
fectionately over his shoulder. 

" There s truth in that, which will apply to others 
as well as you," said the father good-naturedly. 
" Everybody in this part of the State has heard my 
opinion, and as I confess to the charm of novelty 
which is often greater than that of common-sense 
I have been thinking of inviting these young gentle 
men to speak in my stead. What do you say, sirs ?" 
2 


14 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

"Oh, please! please!" cried the impetuous Rosa, 
" we will go to hear a speech from two young aspi 
rants after fame, of whose college eloquence we have 
heard so much. We don t care about the subject 
we have no doubt from what we have heard, that you 
would interest us if you were to speak upon the 
dullest things." 

" I have no objection to obliging you, as far as the 
eloquence goes, but you know, all of you, that I am 
not a Temperance advocate to the extreme of the 
present doctrine." 

" Never mind," said Rosa, " you will be speaking 
in a good cause, and I presume your conscience will 
not trouble you much. Your practices, I hope, are 
not so bad but that you can wrap yourself in the 
mantle of your father s virtues and be unhesitatingly 
received." 

"What do you promise, Charlie?" asked Mar 
garet. 

1 If there should seem to come a need or occasion 
for my exerting myself, I shall do it heartily," he 
replied. 

" Thank you ! you shall have some sweet music as 
a reward for your complaisance," laughed Rosa, 
skipping through the Venetian window into the par 
lor, where a servant had brought lights, followed by 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 15 

Frederick, who, the moment she touched the piano, 
broke out in a stentorian voice which drowned her 
playing 

"Uli, oli,m, ee, 
Charles went courting Rosa Lee!" 

Lily grew wide awake at the tumult, and of course 
took brother Fred s part in the playful quarrel which 
ensued, for Charles and Rosa and even the quiet 
Margaret, were siding against him. " I am not mad, 
nor boisterous, nor a hector, am I?" he asked in a 
tone of mock despair as the little girl stole up and 
took hold of his hand. 

" I don t think you are," she had hardly time to 
assure him, before she was screaming with a sudden 
sense of danger, as he tossed her above his head 
and whirled her around in a frightful manner. 

" That s what you get for defending the unman 
nerly fellow, Miss Lily," taunted Rosa, as the child 
found herself safely on her feet again. 

" I can t help it I love him just as well if he does 
frighten me," murmured she, glancing shyly up into 
her brother s face with her bright eyes, even while 
she shrank a little with the apprehension of describ 
ing another dizzy circle over his head. 

" It is so with all of us it is the way we are spoil 
ing him !" spoke Margaret with some gravity. 


16 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

The haughty and spirited Frederick wa9 a trifle 
touched by these remarks ; he sobered down bis 
turbulent gayety, took his little sister into his lap 
and held her until she fell asleep to the " Sweet 
music" of Rosa s piano. 

In the meantime, the father had drawn his arm 
chair within doors, and sat quietly enjoying the pres 
ence of his family, the pleasant evening and the de 
lightful singing. 

" It would be hard to find a happier home-circle 
than ours," he thought to himself 5 then drew a long, 
soft sigh at the memory of the dear wife gone, glanc 
ing ever at Margaret, lovingly, as she sat finishing 
the reading of her story, the light upon her cheerful 
face, of duties bravely performed, as the eldest sis 
ter, the sister-mother of the family. 


CHAPTER II. 


THE next evening the Lee family went to the Tem 
perance meeting. As their residence was but half 
a mile from town and the evening was lovely, they 
concluded to walk. 

Charles Lennard and Rosa seemed disposed to 
linger upon the way, their youthful souls being in 
that happy mood which rendered them peculiarly 
susceptible to the influence of fragrant air and crim 
son-bound twilight. But Mr. Lee s sympathies were 
with the good cause, and he urged them to hasten 
their steps. 

"Now, Frederick," said Margaret earnestly, as 
they entered the village, " do endeavor to do credit 
to your reputation to-night. You know this is your 
first appearance before your friends and old ac 
quaintances, who have watched you since you were 
a boy with the hope that you would continue to do 
honor to their society." 

" They will be sure to be disappointed then," was 
2* 17 


18 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

the gay reply : u it s a bad thing to have a reputation 
for smartness precede one people expect too much. 
And I assure you, I am not ambitious to be envied 
or admired by the village of C ." 

" But to please father, Fred !" 

" Pshaw ! the fellow has vanity enough to do his 
best, notwithstanding his indolence," cried Lennard, 
as the last couple came up. 

" And you ?" asked Ptosa in her softest voice, with 
a woman s ambition for her lover. 

" I need not expect to shine in the same constel 
lation with your brother ; but I shall speak as my 
conscience dictates." 

They found upon entering, that the hall was crowd 
ed with an assembly which seemed to be listening 
with more than usual attention to the remarks which 
one of their citizens had already commenced to make. 

When he had finished speaking, some one who had 
received an intimation from his father, called out for 
Frederick Lee. "Lee! Lee!" resounded from all 
parts of the building. 

Frederick rose from beside his beautiful sisters 
and advanced to the platform. His winning smile 
and great beauty prepared almost every one to be 
influenced by what he might say. He made a 
brief and brilliant speech to the effect, that the love 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 19 

of stimulus was a part of the soul that all nations 
indulged this passion or craving in some shape or 
another by the use of some intoxicating or narcotic 
drug or drink that the attempt to deprive our 
people of their privilege to use ardent spirits as 
they should think best, by legislative power, would 
be to hurry them into some other perhaps worse 
excesses say the universal use of opium, for in 
stance that the moderate use of these stimulants 
was intended by the Creator as a blessing and comfort 
to men that it was not properly the work of law 
to restrain individual excess that the way to avert 
intemperance was by a slower and surer process, of 
educating the people educating them up to that 
purity and Christianity of principle that they would 
not stand in need of such legislative enactments as are 
now proposed and so on with these and other shal 
low arguments ; atoning for the want of depth and sin 
cerity by a great sparkling of rhetoric and blooming 
of poetry. He talked of the nepenthe in which the 
Lotos-eaters drowned their souls in care-defying, 
soft and soothing dreams of the courage and power 
which nectar imparted to the gods of the comfort 
and delight which the South American Indian slaves 
found in the chewing of a certain leaf; and after 
talking beautifully, and proving nothing, he returned 


20 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

to his seat amid the applause of the opposition, and 
the silence of the temperance advocates. 

" For shame, Fred, you have put poor papa quite 
to the blush by your wickedness," whispered Marga 
ret, as he sat down by her. 

" Wickedness !" he exclaimed, with that trium 
phant way of his ; erecting his handsome head, and 
casting a kindling glance around the room, as if he 
had been doing something to be crowned with laurels 
for. " Nay, now, Margaret, I have been expressing 
what to me seems but truth and justice." 

" You ll repent, some day, I m afraid." 

" Do be still, can t you?" murmured Rosa, " Char 
lie is about to open his mouth and confute you." 

And he did confute him. Frederick s address had 
been like a shallow river, making a sweet ripple, 
sparkling in the sun, and adorned with flowers, dan 
cing on its waves, Charles s was a deep and quiet 
stream, flowing on towards truth, carrying conviction 
resistlessly along with its current. He seemed to 
be very much in earnest, growing quite pale as he 
proceeded, and so much absorbed with his argument 
as to forget to brighten it with witticisms and elo 
quent smiles. He was followed by applause so hear 
ty that Rosa s cheeks grew red with pride. 

There was a great deal of animated talk during 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 21 

the walk home by moonlight. Old Mr. Lee was dis 
pleased as far as he could be with his darling, who 
defended himself with his usual laughing wayward 
ness. Lennard was commended by all. 

" He need not pride himself upon the impression 
he has made upon those solemn old dignitaries of the 
temperance cause," cried young Lee. " I am willing 
to stake my reputation as a heart-smasher, that my 
speech was the one which commanded the most atten 
tion from the ladies and who else is there that is 
worth pleasing ?" 

"No, indeed, for the ladies are always right!" 
said old Mr. Lee. 

" Your father is the most truly gallant man of the 
two ; and I would trust a woman s happiness in his 
keeping sooner than I would in yours," remarked 
Lennard, gayly. 

" Can t help it women persist in thinking differ 
ently," was the indifferent reply. 

" Oh, you piece of vanity and perverseness ! I 
wish they all knew you as perfectly as I do," and 
Rosa gave him a little impatient push through the 
gate with her delicate hand. 

" Do you suppose they would love me as dearly ;" 
was the taunting question, as her brother turned, and 
flinging his arm around her, looking down at her a 


22 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

moment with that half-serious, half-smiling way, so 
irresistible in him. 

And Rosa was obliged to yield, and confess herself 
subdued. 

" Do any of you know who those two strangers 
were who sat with Mrs. Greenwood ]" asked Mar 
garet, as they reached the piazza, and lingered for a 
few moments to enjoy the moonlight before separat 
ing for the night. " They looked like brother and 
sister. There was something in their looks and man 
ners so interesting that I kept stealing glances at 
them all the evening." 

" When I first remarked them," said Rosa, " Fred 
had just commenced speaking, and they both appear 
ed so intent upon the orator that I had abundant 
opportunity to observe them. The young gentleman 
leaned forward, never turning his eyes away from 
you for a moment but the lady, after a few mo 
ments, fixed her gaze upon her companion s face 
with a sad, earnest gaze that was touching to see. 
He seems to be an invalid, and oh ! what divine 
eyes he has has he not, Charlie ?" 

" Really, I cannot say, as I did not observe them," 
replied Charlie, a little coldly ; " but I think I can 
tell you who the strangers are, if they were with 
Mrs. Greenwood. That lady told me this morning 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 23 

that she had some guests whom she expects us to 
call upon. Their name is Guyarre they are of a 
distinguished family, orphans, wealthy, and from the 
South. 

" That s a brief summing up of a great many 
merits," said Frederick. " Was the lady young and 
beautiful?" 

" She was both young and beautiful," replied 
Margaret ; " and more, her beauty was of so pe 
culiar a kind as to make it doubly attractive. Ah ! 
Fred, you little suspected that so much was at stake 
to-night, when you favored us with your eloquence." 

t{ Ha ! well ! we ll go in state to-morrow ; I guess 
that Jube and the jet black ponies and the new 
carriage will make a turn-out worthy of ourselves 
and those we wish to distinguish. I m all delight 
and expectation ; something to break the monotony 
of this dull summer !" 

"Don t let anticipation prevent your sleeping to 
night, for your good looks sake," warned Rosa, as 
she took Lennard s arm ; and the matter of the visit 
being settled, the lovers walked up and down the 
avenue before the mansion, having a little social 
conference to themselves. 

" You appeared to be really in earnest to night, 
and to feel what you said in your address," remarked 


24 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

the young girl. " I did not know that you felt any 
especial interest in the subject." 

" I do feel a deep interest in the subject," said 
her lover, pausing in the shadow of the maple trees, 
and pressing her little hands, " and I was pained at 
the tenor of your brother s remarks ; for, Rosa, 
darling, it is true that I myself feel sometimes the 
need of other restraint than my judgment. The love 
of wine is a weakness, a passion which I share with 
thousands of others, and which I have to struggle 
against, and the struggle is harder because tempta 
tion is so frequent. In the houses of my friends, 
from the hands of my relatives, and even the dear 
hand of my Rosa, among my youthful companions 
where I dine where I sup where I amuse myself 
I see the cup and am compelled to take it. I wish 
that it were otherwise, for had I not all that firmness 
and perhaps even obstinacy of character which I do 
possess were I not usually cool, calm and disci 
plined in my feelings, I imagine the danger with me 
would be great. So that I am prepared, out of the 
knowledge of my own infirmity, to pity others, and to 
aid them if I can. And it is the fear that Frederick 
has given encouragement to some one less strong than 
myself, to abandon himself to his inclinations, which 
disturbs me. A little help given to the wrong side, 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 25 

which has already such powerful pleaders in the pas 
sions of men, lends it a fresh impetus. 

" He was thoughtless," said the fair girl, with 
more than her usual seriousness. " But he is so 
strong, so confident , and fearless himself, that he de 
spises all weakness in others, and thinks that every 
man must stand or fall for himself. But is it true, 
Charles, that you are in danger of falling * You are 
the very last person I should have dreamed of." 

" No, Rosa, I do not fear that I shall be tempted 
beyond my strength, for I would not feel at liberty, 
while haunted by such a curse, to seek an innocent 
and happy girl as a wife. I love you too well to 
make you a drunkard s wife. I confessed my failing 
to you, out of a selfish motive partly that I might 
have your sympathy, and perhaps a little of your 
admiration, too, little Rosa, for the firmness with 
which I guard myself, eh ?" and he laughed, and 
confessed likewise to a strong inclination to kiss 
away the tears which had fallen on the cheeks of the 
maiden which latter weakness, not seeing in the 
happy state of affairs between them any reason why 
he should deny himself, he probably indulged. 

At least, when they emerged into the full June 
moonlight, there was a deeper glow than usual on 
Rosa s face, and a satisfied smile upon Charlie s.- 


26 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

Just then, Maggie s sweet voice was heard, calling 
her to come in out of the dew, which wise command 
she lingeringly obeyed. Young Lennard sung out a 
cheerful good night to the group on the piazza : and 
soon a silvery veil of slumber, gentle dreams, moon 
light and balmy slumbers, rested upon the household. 
The next morning at breakfast the strangers were 
again the most interesting theme for conversation ; 
and at as early an hour as suited Frederick s dignity, 
the carriage was ordered. The young gentleman 
even went himself to the stables to assure Jupiter, 
the coachman, that it was all important that he should 
do justice to the Lee family. That ebony piece of 
pomposity with a flourish that would have done credit 
to his young master himself, assured him that the 
respectability of the family should be maintained. 
The consequences were that the turn-out was never 
more faultless. There was a quiet richness and 
grave splendor in the high spirited black ponies, the 
handsome but not guady carriage, the glittering har 
ness and the shining solemn face of Jupiter, which 
contrasted excellently with the cheerful looks and 
spirits of the party on the velvet cushioned seats, a3 
they rolled onward to the town. As they passed 
his uncle s office on Main street, they stopped and 
took in Charles Lennard ; proceeding on to the tree- 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 27 

ehadowed avenues adorned with the dwellings of the 
rich, they were soon at Mrs. Greenwood s. 

That lady s guests were not in the room when she 
received them, but after a brief delay, Miss Guyarre 
came in. She had been sitting with her brother 
who was ill and not able to leave his room that mor 
ning. 

Frederick Lee forgot his vain determination to 
please, when she glided into the room, she came so 
like a star, serene and radiant. Her beauty was in 
deed attractive by its peculiarity. Her complexion 
was a clear pale olive with the slightest tint of crim 
son on her cheeks, but richly colored lips ; her face 
was a charming oval with delicate features and large 
heavily fringed black eyes, lustrous black hair and 
an altogether sweet and beautiful expression. She 
was small and slender ; with a form daintily round 
and full. In all her gestures, words and looks there 
was a grace as simple yet so ineffable, so becomingly 
her own, that it was more winning even than her 
beauty. 

When Mr. Lennard was introduced to her a look 
of pleasure and recognition brightened her face, but 
no such gratifying manner marked her reception of 
Mr. Frederick Lee, despite of that gentleman s con 
fident assertion that he had had the sympathies of the 


28 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

feminine portion of his audience on the preceding 
evening. He saw by a glance at his sisters that the 
young stranger had gained their affections, and as 
Margaret and Rosa were each in their way also emi 
nently formed to please; and as Mrs. Greenwood 
especially made known that she relied a great deal 
upon them to make the few weeks visit of her friends 
agreeable, there seemed to be every chance that he 
should have an opportunity of doing away with any 
unfavorable impression Miss Guyarre might have 
formed of him. So" he dashed into the conversation 
with his wonted vivacity ; while very much to his 
secret chargin the peerless creature he had so instan 
taneously admired, though attentive to all, fixed her 
eyes upon his companion with unusual interest when 
ever he spoke. 

A shade of melancholy passed over Miss Guyarre s 
face when she spoke of the ill-health of her brother, 
but it passed away without disturbing the sweet se 
renity of her countenance. 

The first brief call was soon over. When the party 
were again in their carriage, the fear of being ex 
travagant did not check their praise ; they commend 
ed, without measure, all but Frederick, whose silence 
was taken by his merry companions to be more ex 
pressive than words : 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 29 

" Did you notice her hands ? so small, so exqui 
site ?" asked Rosa. 

" But her eyes ! and her sweet manners and voice," 
said Charlie. 

" And her complexion, so pure, pale and trans 
parent, revealing that bewitching tracery of crimson 
veins in her cheeks," added Margaret. " Did not 
Mrs. Greenwood call her Blanche ? Blanche Gruy- 
arre ! an appropriate name/ 

" She is like a lilly, is she not ? so graceful, so 
perfect, so placid and yet bright, and with such a 
breath of fragrance about her ! like just such lilies 
as bloom beneath those brilliant southern skies where 
she grew up," ran on Rosa with the warmth of her 
generous nature, unable to praise enough this fair 
being who had enchained her fancy. " Yes, Blanche 
is her befitting name, for her fairness is unequalled. 
Fred, why don t you say something ?" 

" You two girls have exhausted the alphabet of 
magnificent phrases, and I cannot say anything with 
out being accused of plagiarism," was the rather sullen 
reply. However, Charlie, either my sisters are the 
best-natured girls in the world, or else women are 
not as envious of each other, and have not half the 
malice in their hearts that we ve been taught to be 
lieve. What do you think ?" 


30 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

"Think," interrupted Rosa ; " He does not think 
where I am that is, anything ill of us. If half the 
self-esteem, vanity, unpardonable conceit, jealousy 
and wickedness in general, existed among us that 
there does with the gentlemen, I do not believe the 
world would live a century !" 

" If you let your little woman talk to you in that 
way now, Lennard, I wonder what will be her pre 
sumption when she comes to have a still better 
right ?" 

" She may have to exercise more discretion," was 
the quiet reply. " Oh ! you still, cautious, determin 
ed man ! I declare I am afraid of you ; I should not 
wonder if you did prove to be a real tyrant," spoke 
up Rosa in some dismay. Lennard laughed, without 
seeking to defend himself from her fears j but as he 
lifted her from the carriage, there was a gentleness 
in his eye which re-assured her of his kind dispo 
sition. 

Late the next day as Frederick Lee was wandering 
up and down the portico and across the lawn, he saw 
Mrs. Greenwood s barouche rolling along the avenue. 
The Guyarres, brother and sister, were within. As 
it was after sunset, the latter wore no bonnet ; her 
hair was arranged in the Spanish fashion, adorned 
with flowers, and she wore also the Spanish white 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 31 

dress and black mantilla. Of course he managed to 
be upon the steps when the carriage stopped, to help 
the ladies out. 

It was the brother this time who had to have his 
place assigned him silently in the minds of the Lees. 
He, too, had a grace of manner that immediately won 
favor. He was not handsome, he was too thin and 
sallow to be strictly beautiful, but he had his sister s 
winning smile, and his eyes were large and dark, 
with a melancholy magnificence about them, for either 
illness or some other cause had filled them with con 
stant sadness, except when something struck harshly 
upon his sensitive and fiery soul ; they had then a 
fire and glow that was more than animated. 

He was not tall, but his form was so slender ana 
his demeanor so princely that he did not appear as 
small as he really was. 

Margaret was not willing that the call should be a 
brief one. They walked about the gardens and 
through the maple-groves until dark. Blanche Guy- 
arre was particularly delighted with the roses j it 
was the season when they were in full fragrance and 
bloom, and there were seventy or eighty varieties in 
Margaret s collection. 

" And look, Pierre, at these beautiful maple trees," 


32 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

she cried j "so stately, so cool ! I wish we had some 
of them around our villa at Magnolia Vale." 

When they returned to the house, as the evening 
was warm and they had been riding in the dust, our 
hospitable Maggie had refreshments brought in. 

As the servant came in with a salver, Blanche 
Guyarre could not refrain from casting an uneasy 
glance upon it. If she was afraid of seeing wine, she 
was relieved from her fears, for Mr. Lee was too 
strict in practice as well as preaching to offer it to 
guests or keep it upon his table, despite of the dan 
ger of exciting fashionable ridicule. Iced-creams 
with some freshly-gathered strawberries tasted de- 
liciously after the sultriness of the day. 

From that time began so great a friendship be 
tween all these young people that Mrs Greenwood 
laughingly declared that she did not know whether 
her niece and nephew were her guests or Mr. Lee s. 

Of course the Guyarres , coming from the South, 
were skilful in horsemanship ; and as if on purpose 
to increase the pleasure of their visit, the weather 
continued unusually cool for the month of June ; so 
that after every little sprinkle of rain or heavy dew 
which would lay the dust, a gay cavalcade brightened 
the gloom of the forest roads around C , and 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 33 

made musical all the echoes lurking in the pictur 
esque paths around. 

Margaret and Rosa had heretofore prided them 
selves upon their equestrian accomplishments ; but 
they willingly yielded the palm to Blanche. When 
she sat upon her horse, with her waving hair, beau 
tiful face, and light, aerial figure, controlling with 
ease the most spirited animal, it seemed made for 
her expressly. 

Frederick had never seemed so elate, so joyous. 
He scarcely found time to teaze little Lily, but was 
constantly engaged in planning amusements and 
carrying them into effect. As for Lily she was the 
especial pet of Blanche Guyarre, and repaid that 
bright creature s caresses with an evident affection 
and an admiration that knew no bounds. 

Her golden curls and roseate cheeks looked fair 
against Blanche s pale white shoulders .and raven 
hair. 

They had music, too, in profusion, at Maple 
Grove. 

Pierre Guyarre seemed to love his guitar better 
than anything else except his sister. He sung soft, 
impassioned Spanish and Italian airs in a voice of 
such liquid sweetness, touching the strings of his 
guitar with so cunning a hand, that a fine flood of 


34 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

tender melody seemed to fill the air so full that there 
was scarcely room for breath, and even the roses 
hanging nodding in at the window, grew still, and 
their fragrance seemed to die away in a trance. 

Rosa hardly dared to touch the piano when he had 
finished singing it sounded loud and coarse after 
such gentleness of music, but he used to urge her 
with a kind of eager entreaty which she could not 
resist. He would sit near and gaze upon her face, 
while she warbled forth those sparkling melodies most 
like her own laughing temperament, her light fingers 
flying over the keys with a fairy touch. 

In this company, so distinguished for grace and 
gayety and so happily thrown together, there were 
two or three jarring elements that sometimes refused 
to blend in the harmony. With all his happiness, 
Frederick had some heart burnings. He could not 
awaken that interest in the heart of Blanche that he 
had resolved he must. His meaning glances, low 
tones and constant attentions seemed to be but half 
appreciated. He had reason to be jealous of no one 
but her brother. Between these two the strongest 
affection existed. She seemed uneasy if away from 
him ; if he smiled, her face brightened ; if he was 
unusually sad, nothing could attract her from his 
side. That they were orphans, with no very near re- 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 35 

lations, made this seem natural. And young Lee 
would have admired it very much, and did. Yet it 
was mortifying to him that even he had to lose half 
his eloquent remarks and delicate attentions, on ac 
count of that fair creature s senses being wrapped up 
in her brother. 

Another discord was, that Pierre, instead of being 
charmed with Margaret, as he should have been, she 
having no affianced husband lingering around, and 
quite equalling her sister in personal beauty, must 
needs do, as love always does, so hopeless and wrong 
a thing as to adore Rosa. Her artless gayety and 
fair-haired loveliness, from the very contrast probably 
to his own manner, and the beauty he had been ac 
customed to admire, seemed to fascinate him beyond 
his power of resistance. 

Nobody saw this but the quick eye of her accepted 
lover. To his bosom and Pierre, were confined the 
occasional heart-aches. 

Rosa was too pure-minded to have willingly made 
anybody s heart ache for the sake of administering to 
her vanity. Knowing that Pierre must be aware of 
her engagement with Charles, she was all vivacity 
and kindness ; singing for him, riding with him, de 
lighting him as she did others with her mischievoui 


36 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

frolics. Perhaps she enjoyed his attentions the more, 
that she was so soon to be deprived of such liberty ; 
so that Charles had more than once to feel that a 
woman is a tyrant with what power she has. 


CHAPTER III. 

I WISH, Miss Guyarre, that I was old enough to 
go with you to the pic-nic to-morrow," said Lily, as 
she nestled up beside their visiter upon the sofa. 

" You are plenty old enough, Lily, and you shall 
go, if Maggie will only consent. Go and ask her. 
Tell her that Pierre will carry you with him upon 
his horse." 

" But it will not be necessary," said the little girl, 
proudly, " I can ride as well as Rosa, or Fred, or 
any one, and I have a pony of my own !" 

" Is it possible ! that will be charming. You shall 
be my maid of honor, keeping by my side to receive 
a small portion of the gallantry that will be uselessly 
lavished upon me." 

" Miss Lee," she continued as Margaret came in 
to the room, " I want to ask you to let Lily go with 
us to-morrow. I wish her to so much !" 

" You will spoil the child by so much attention, 

4 37 


38 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

I m afraid," was the smiling reply. " I do not know 
who will engage to escort so youthful a lady." 

" I am to be her maid of honor I don t want any 
escort please, sister Maggie, please let me go !" 

"So you have elected yourself Queen already, 
have you 1" asked Margaret, laughingly, at her guest. 

The fair Southerner blushed at even being accused 
of such vanity. For a creature so gifted with grace 
and beauty, wealth and high birth, she was the most 
unconscious of the impression she universally made. 

" All the ladies shall be queens," she said gently, 
" each to the one who owns her so. I, for the want 
of a loyal subject, must keep up appearances by hav 
ing an attendant. So you must consent to let Lily 

go." 

Miss Lee patted the golden curls and said ft Yes," 
when away they flew to seek a resting-place against 
the vest of Frederick, who stood by the window, 
pulling a rose to pieces impatiently, his feelings hav 
ing been disturbed by the last sentences uttered by 
the young lady upon the sofa. 

" Isn t she an angel ?" whispered Lily, as she 
hugged him for joy to think of the promised plea- 
dure. 

" Who ?" was the cool question. 

" Why, Blanche, of course say, isn t sbe ?" 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 39 

. " I wish you would be more polite, little one, and 
say Miss Guyarre," was all the reply she got from 
the surly fellow, who was angry because Lily had 
privileges which he had not, of saying Blanche, and 
sitting close up by her on the sofa, and being the 
recipient of numberless caresses and the like. No 
wonder he was irritable ! 

Mr. Lee half thought that the days of beauty and 
chivalry had returned us he sat the next morning in 
his arm chair on the piazza, and watched the gay 
party who were caracoling their steeds, riding up 
and down the avenue, and darting in and out of 
the maple grove, laughing and shouting as they 
waited for the cavalcade from the village, who were 
to pass that way on their ride to the pic-nic ground, 
ten miles away. A brief shower falling during the 
night, had cooled the air and laid the dust, and was 
still sparkling here and there upon the grass, the 
waving branches of the trees, and the rose-bushes, 
beneath each of which latter a rosy carpet of leaves, 
shaken down by the rain, announced that their 
blooming was almost over. 

The expected party was soon seen dashing down 
the road and with a sweep and glitter, away go our par 
ticular friends the delicate and princely Pierre upon 
his coal black steed, by the side of Rosa, whose fair 


40 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

curls flutter in the breeze Lermard and the stately 
Margaret side by side and Blanche, the beautiful, 
upon her fiery horse, her dark hair shining purple in 
the sun, her slender figure buoyant with life and 
grace, the little Lily on her white pony keeping close, 
her blue ribbons and golden ringlets streaming about 
her face, with Frederick, the handsome, the brilliant, 
making his horse curvet superbly upon her other 
hand. 

Mr. Lee arose from his chair and leaned against 
a column of the portico, to keep them in sight as 
long as possible, they made so pleasing an array as 
they sped along the road, their merry laughter float 
ing back upon the wind, and when they were finally 
lost beyond the wood, he found himself repeating 
Praed s poetry to himself : 

The sun shone bright on hill and grove 

It was a glorious day . 
The lords and ladies were making love, 

And the clowns were making hay : 

at which he laughed and returned to his book. 

The pic-nic prospered better than the most, seeing 
there was no change of weather to dampen its plea 
sures, nor melting away of desirable refreshments. 
The accident which did at length destroy the happi- 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 41 

ness of some in it, arose from there being too costly 
an abundance of the latter. 

Pierre Guyarre, who for the last few days had 
seemed to be gaining rapidly in health and spirits, 
had started out upon the excursion with unusual gay- 
ety, but something happening in Rosa s manner, or 
more likely in Lennard s, to chafe his sensitive feel 
ings, he had gradually grown silent and almost sullen. 
When the ladies had arranged their rural repast upon 
the grass, contrary to all customs of the shepherds 
and shepherdesses they should have imitated, a basket 
of wine made its appearance. Blanche grew pale 
and uneasy as she saw her brother quaff eagerly, 
glass after glass. She contrived to change her seat 
and get by his side to whisper a remonstrance in his 
ear, but he paid only a momentary attention, and his 
thirst seemed so excessive, that even the gentlemen 
began to regard the young southerner with some sur 
prise. The rest continued to eat and talk, and be 
merry or witty as their mood might be, while Pierre 
continued to drink, until his voice grew loud, his 
eyes glowing, and his manner unpleasant. 

His sister could not conceal her distress ; she be 
came silent, and regarded him with glances of entreaty. 
At last she was constrained to beg of Lennard to 
endeavor to persuade him away from the party until 


42 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

be became calm. This Leonard in the most delicate 
manner attempted to do ; but it was unfortunate he 
should have addressed him just then, for some secret 
sense of injury received from that gentleman, was 
what had urged his passionate spirit to throw off re 
straint and indulge in the temptation before him. 
He replied angrily to Lennard s cheerful invitation 
to walk with him, and appeared so changed from the 
gentle, graceful and attractive stranger whom every 
one had esteemed, that the ladies, remembering vari 
ous rumors of the bowie-knives and pistols which 
made the chivalrous southerners so dangerous when 
irritated, began to shrink from the scene of contest, 
and cling to the arms of their braver companions. 

" He may kill somebody !" exclaimed one thought 
less damsel who was standing close to Blanche. 

"Oh, no! he will not he has no weapons!" she 
said quickly, but the trial was too much for her, and 
she burst into tears. 

Frederick Lee felt as if he could have killed half 
a dozen people when he saw those tears, and that 
foolish brother in particular. He came to her side, 
where his sisters already were 

" Let us go home," said Blanche. " Oh, Mr. Lee, 
try and persuade him to get into Mrs. Greenwood s 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 43 

carriage, and we will go with him. He is perfectly 
ungovernable when he is so much excited." 

After a disagreeable parley, Pierre was led by 
Frederick to the carriage, and he with Blanche and 
Mrs. Greenwood, drove away from the scene of their 
discomfiture. 

" This is partly your fault, Mr. Lee," said Blanche, 
as she took her handkerchief from her eyes, after 
they had passed over a mile or two of their way home. 

" How so, Miss G-uyarre," he asked in surprise. 

" He had not touched wine for a year, and was 
pledged never to do so, when we attended that tem 
perance meeting the night after our arrival here ; 
but your rhetoric was so specious, the pictures 
you drew of the bewitching Lotos ; the bewil 
dering opium ; the cheering social glass, were so 
alluring to his long stifled passion, that with his 
soul on fire, he hastened from the hall to drown it in 
the forbidden flood, and returned to me that night 
delirious. This was the reason of his sudden illness. 
His organization is so delicate, his nerves so finely 
strung that such excess almost destroys him." 

The sadness and bitterness of her reproach, and 
the heavy sigh which followed it, were felt so keenly 
by Fredrick, that he submitted to them in silence, too 
much grieved and humiliated to attempt to defend 


44 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

himself. She saw that he was mortified, and gave 
him a forgiving smile, which almost caused him to 
jump out of the barouche with a mingled agony of 
love and repentance. However, he remained in, 
which was best, for Pierre was quite ill by the time 
they reached the village, giving him a slight chance 
to atone, by the kindness with which he waited by 
the sufferer s bed for the rest of that day and night. 

When Pierre Guyarre came to his senses, his 
chagrin and shame came near throwing him into a 
serious fever. His self-abasement was too great. 
He refused to see any one but his sister and Fred 
erick, and did not leave his room for several days. 
His secret and his sharpest pain was that he should 
have degraded himself before Rosa. 

That she knew his weakness that she had lost 
her respect for him was so bitter to think upon, 
that he resolved never more to see her face, but to 
remain in his chamber under the plea of sickness, 
until Blanche was ready to go back to their own 
home. He became so melancholy that he did not 
even desire to follow out their original plan of spend 
ing a part of the summer at Newport. 

It was Rosa herself, who diverted him from this 
morbid state of mind. As he would not come forth 
and enjoy himself, she, after sending Blanche in as 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 45 

$ 
a herald, burst upon him in his retirement, so glad, 

so blooming, so seemingly unconscious of anything 
painful, that his impressible soul arose out of its des 
pondency to the opposite extreme of exhiliration. He 
heaved a sigh of relief, and a smile, his own most 
bright and winning smile, sprung to his lips before 
she had finished her first rapid sentence. 

" I have good news, Mr. Gruyarre, good news for 
me at least ; we are all going with you to Newport 
next week ! Fred, Mr. Lennard, myself, even our 
quiet Maggie has been prevailed to leave house-keep 
ing to the house-keepers and make one of our number. 
What a party we shall be ! Mrs. Greenwood for 
matron ! Will we not enjoy ourselves ? Maggie was 
reluctant about going, because papa would not accom 
pany us and Lily but he had rather remain at home 
and keep the house open. What do you say ? Ah ! 
I see you are glad, by your smile !" and she held out 
her hand to him. 

He grasped it as if he were a drowning man, and 
it were a straw, so eagerly, so closely, 

" Rosa," he said, " you bewilder me with joy !" 

And he looked as much as he said, but she did 
not understand him, and continued her vivacious 
chat, untouched by the tell-tale glow of his manner. 

Blanche saw that he was happy, and her own anx- 


46 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

ious look disappeared. From being as wilful in his 
unhappiness as a man could be, he softened down in 
to his old sweet compliance ; so that the two girls 
led him down in triumph to the parlor, looking him 
self again. 

Margaret and Rosa had never been to Newport. 
Their father had a prejudice against allowing very 
young ladies to mingle in such gay crowds, and it had 
only been through the all powerful pleading of the 
" only son" that the desired consent had been given. 
When it came, however, it was so cheerful as to do 
away with all Maggie s reluctance to go. They 
applied to Mrs. Greenwood for all the little know 
ledges of toilets and the like which her experience 
made valuable ; and the few days of preparation 
passed swiftly away. 

It was now in the middle of July, and the wea 
ther very warm, they found Newport sufficiently 
crowded for all purposes of comfort and gayety. 
The arrival of their party created as much excite 
ment as any event can among the jaded fashionables 
who assemble there. It was a rare thing, even for 
Newport, to be graced by so large a party, every 
member of which had so much to render it distin 
guished. 

Mrs. Greenwood, the chaperon of the young ladies, 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 47 

had spent the summers for several years between 
Saratoga and Newport ; and her claims to considera 
tion as a lady of undoubted fashion and supreme 
elegance were already acknowledged. That she was 
not beautiful, only made the younger ladies appear 
more so. Such people as the Southerners, whose 
immense wealth was soon rumored about, and of such 
youth and grace, were welcomed as stars of the first 
magnitude, everybody longing to borrow a little 
lustre by introducing themselves into the circle which 
they illuminated. Margaret would be attractive 
anywhere Rosa was adorable Frederick sparkling 
and splendid Lennard pleasing, elegant, eminently 
refined. Mrs. Greenwood knew that she could not 
so successfully have retained her pre-eminence an 
other season, unless she had surrounded herself with 
such a halo of glory. 

In that exceedingly common-place, soulless or ex 
aggerated state of sentiments and affairs in the 
world at Newport, our friends being very young, 
with much charm of nature and freshness of feeling 
remaining with them, found a great deal to delight 
them, and to hasten on the current of their hearts. 
The beach by moonlight, the cliff, the glen, the 
beautiful music awoke in their bosoms those real 
emotions which the more experienced only affected 


48 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

They were delighted to look on at the dancing but 
they did not dance that is, the ladies did not. 
They were contented to admire their brothers as 
they whirled away with some of the bright young 
belles of their acquaintance. 

The influence of all these things to Pierre Guyarre 
became irresistible. He could not live out of sight 
of Kosa. If she interested herself in him he was 
wildly gay if she walked and talked and laughed 
with Lennard, he was despondent. Blanche began 
to suspect the truth, and endeavored to warn him, 
but he was past taking her gentle advice. 

" He does not love her as I do he is not capable 
of it !" he returned, " and she ought to be mine she 
must be!" 

" You deceive yourself, Pierre," she reasoned with 
him, " they will never be separated, and ought not to 
be. Do you not see that they are becoming more at 
tached every day. Look at them, now, how content 
ed, how radiant they look you would not if you had 
the power, destroy such happiness ?" 

" No, I would not ; you know I do not mean to be 
selfish, Blanche !" he said, sadly, turning his eyes 
away from a sight that he did not like to contemplate. 

" You are a good brother !" she said with her 
sweetest manner, " and you know there is one person 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 49 


* 
who loves you more dearly than any one else in the 

world. But I am growing jealous of you, Pierre ; 
you have been the first to be unfaithful. Here am I, 
ready to pledge you my best love and attention all 
my life long, yet you are beginning to show such 
preferences for others. Fie ! Pierre ! I deserve bet 
ter than that !" 

"Do you?" he asked, smiling in return, for he 
could not help it, she looked so lovely, " I guess that 
you are equally open to reproof with myself. Do I 
not see that Frederick Lee has no ambition but to 
please my little Blanche?" 

The crimson veins in her clear cheeks flushed, 
and she answered in a tone that faltered a little : 

" I have no time to see it, Pierre I do not wish 
to T have no eyes for any one but you." 

The suffusion was still upon her cheeks and in her 
eyes, when Frederick approached to ask her to ride 
with him. 

" Can you spare me ?" she first asked of her broth 
er, before she accepted the invitation. 

" Indeed he can, for Lennard has Rosa, and Mar 
garet is waiting for Pierre to attend upon her. We 
are all going out this afternoon, and the carriages are 
at the door. There is a cool breeze blowing, which 
will be delightful." 


50 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

% 

Young Guyarre was tempted to refuse to go ; but 
a look from Blanche decided him j he went for Mar 
garet, and they were soon beyond the admiring ob 
servation of the loungers about the hotel. 

A cool breeze, a gorgeous sunset, the ocean, and 
such serene company, with the swift motion of the 
ride, might have soothed Pierre s restless humor, had 
not the couple of happy lovers who kept all the time 
within hailing distance, disenchanted the whole scene. 
Rosa s ringing laugh and the confiding way in which 
she was chatting with her companion kept mocking 
him ; and when at last, urged on by the gay girl, 
Lennard drove rapidly by them, and Rosa turned her 
triumphant beautiful face back to them, he gave 
himself up to his rising temper, and the rest of the 
ride was passed in silence. Margaret had seen him 
in sullen moods before, and allowed him to have his 
own way. The dreary rate at which he drove, made 
them the last to reach the Hotel, where the rest of 
the party in the finest spirits were awaiting them. 
As they had to be rallied for their melancholy ap 
pearance, it was more than the young gentleman 
could bear ; he turned and left them abruptly, fol 
lowed by Mrs. Greenwood s laugh who asserted that, 
" She believed he had been refused by Margaret." 
It was now twilight, when, as they were pacing 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 51 

back and forth on the long balcony, Mrs. Greenwood 
picked up a piece of folded paper which somebody 
had dropped. It was not light enough where they 
were to read what was scribbled upon it, and which 
seemed to be poetry. As there was no address nor 
mark of the owner, they considered it fair spoils and 
all crowded laughingly to the saloon where the lamps 
were being lighted, to read it. 

Frederick had been leaning against a column in a 
reverie, bright enough, perhaps, but a little tinged 
with gloom ; for the pre-occupied, unconscious man 
ner of Blanche, gave him a great many twinges of 
the heart-ache. 

He did not hear what was passing until they called 
to him from the parlors to come and listen to some 
stray poetry which had got bewildered in Newport. 

Mrs. Greenwood had commenced the reading when 
he made his appearance, and all were so intent upon 
the lines that they did not notice his consternation. 
They ran thus : 

A star hath risen on our night, 

A beautiful, pale star ! 
Bewildering us with too much light 

The peerless Blanche Guyarre ! 

Out of the fragrant Southern skies, 

She wandereth from afar, 
Entrancing our cold Northern eyes 

The peerless Blanche Guyarre J 


52 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

Mild Hesper, with her lustrous face, 

Sweet shining from afar, 
Ne er beamed with such untroubled grace 

As peerless Blanche Guyarre 1 

The rosy east against the sun 
May shut his golden bar 

We want no other day but one 
The peerless Blanche Guyarre! 

She is the embodied dream of love 

It s " bright particular star," 
Come earthward from the heavens above 

The peerless Blanche Guyarre! 

I dare not worship at her feet, 

But love her from afar 
The pure, the beautiful, the sweet, 

The peerless Blanche Guyarre ! 

" Somebody has been star-struck instead of moon 
struck," laughed Lennard. 

" I wonder whose writing it is," said the reader. 

" So do I," cried Frederick, snatching the paper 
from her hand, "perhaps I can tell!" 

"Perhaps you can!" said Rosa, slily, who had 
been too quick for him, and caught a glimpse of the 
manuscript " it ? s his own ! it s Frederick s hand 
writing, girls !" and the mischievous girl clapped her 
hands with delight to see the burning blush which 
rushed over his face. 

"Why, you little story-teller! When did you 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 53 


ever know me to make a rhyme in my life ?" he 
cried, seizing her and threatening the instant an 
nihilation of her curls and boquet, if she did not 
retract. 

In the midst of this confusion, he did not omit to 
steal a glance at Blanche, who stood with downcast 
eyes, and something certainly like a smile upon her 
crimsoned cheek. 

" I never did know you to," said Rosa, struggling 
to escape from him, as the parlor began to fill with 
its accustomed throng, but the love of teasing him 
overcoming prudence, she continued the moment he 
released her " and I m sure the lines do not sound 
like one who has had much practice ! In the first 
place, the idea of comparing a woman to a star, is 
older than the hills in the next place there is too 
much repetition and in the third place, if the man 
is such a coward that he dare not Worship at her 
feet, the lady will have a great contempt for him 
will she not, my Peerless Blanche Guyarre ?" 

" It is hardly fair to put that question to me," 
replied the graceful girl, raising her brilliant eyes a 
moment to Frederick s. " But I am troubled about 
Pierre. If anybody present wrote these lines, he 
has a chance to prove his devotion by going in search 
of my wayward brother!" 

5* 


54 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

" Oh dear ! it is always my brother ! as if he was 
not old enough to be released from your apron- 
string," fretted Fred, smiling and frowning as he 
started to obey her request. 

" He is jealous! you must excuse him!" whispered 
Rosa in her ear. 

Young Lee found, upon inquiry, that Guyarre had 
accepted the invitation of one of the wildest young 
fellows at the Hotel, to take supper with him in his 
private parlor. As it was a place into which he could 
not very well intrude, and dreading to provoke the 
wrath of the sensitive Southerner by an appearance 
of surveillance, he returned to the company without 
him. Blanche showed so much solicitude when she 
heard where he was, that he resolved to waive in 
ferior considerations and attempt to get him away 
from a set, whose object he well knew, was to take 
advantage of the richness of their wealthy victim, to 
rob him at play of enough money to keep themselves 
afloat in the polite current of watering place society. 

As an excuse for calling him from his companions, 
it was proposed that Blanche should send for him to 
join them in a walk upon the beach. 

So Frederick went and knocked at the door of 
room No . It seemed to be all quiet and respect- 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 55 

able there, of course, when its occupant responded 
to his summons. 

" I have a message from his sister to Mr. Gruy- 
arre," said he, trying to peep through the partly 
opened door. 

" Gruyarre," said the honorable young gentleman 
with great readiness. " He is not here ! I have 
not seen him since he went out to ride this after 
noon," and he shut the door upon the unwelcome 
messenger. 

Frederick knew better, but he had not time to say 
so ; and probably thought it best that he should 
not. 

The evening was not a pleasant one to Blanche, 
although they walked along the beach and met amus 
ing friends. 

After she retired at midnight, she lay awake the 
rest of the night, listening for her brother to enter 
his room, which was adjoining hers. It was nearly 
daybreak when he did so ; and she expected nothing 
less than that he would be unable to leave it the 
next morning. 

And so he was. It was not until late in the after 
noon that he came forth, pale and haggard, having 
refused all day to admit any one but their servant. 
He went to tea with his sister, affecting gayetj and 


56 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

nonchalence, but he avoided meeting Rosa s eye or 
speaking to her. 

In the evening, however, as it was beautiful out 
of doors, he asked her to walk, and they with a dozen 
other couple, went to the beach. In the midst of 
their rainblings it so happened that they lost them 
selves behind a cliff from the rest of the party. Here 
Pierre paused, and suggested that they should rest 
themselves upon the rock until their friends came up, 
as they had been walking fast. 

" How beautiful the ocean looks," remarked Rosa. 

A thunder-storm was gathering in the western sky, 
but the moon shone full and lustrous in mid heaven. 
Far in the distance the sea was shadowy and fright 
ful, at their feet it lay in glittering splendor. 

" Does it ? I was not thinking of the ocean, I 
was thinking of what a fool I have made of myself 
again !" was the abrupt reply. 

"How have you made a fool of yourself ?" re 
sponded the young girl, anxious io save him any 
mortification on account of his last night s dissipa 
tion. " Is it by encouraging that pretty Ellen Smith 
to sing Spanish ballads at you for nothing ?" 

" Rosa Lee ! you ve got to be serious a moment !" 
cried Pierre, fixing his eyes upon her with an ex 
pression which awed her at once it was so intense 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 57 

so almost threatening. " You know how I have 
twice made a fool of myself in your company, but 
you may not know that it was my mad despair at 
your indifference each time that urged me on. You 
have got to know it now, for I cannot help telling 
you. And I shall be worse unless you make me 
better. Ah ! Rosa, do not turn away I am not my 
true self, except when you regard me kindly." 

Rosa was going to make an angry reply, his first 
sentence was so imperious, so rude ; but his voice 
softened into such tenderness of pathos, that she was 
constrained to meet his glance which had changed 
too into imploring beauty. 

"You do both me and Mr. Lennard wrong by 
speaking of such thoughts," she replied with gentle 
ness. " I am sorry to believe that you could have 
so little control over your feelings I do not believe 
it and if you will go now, and say no more on the 
matter, I will forget that you have ever spoken of 
it." 

" Lennard !" said he with fierce bitterness, " what 
does he know about love ? He is one too many in 
this world ; if it were not for him we could be so 
happy oh, so happy together, Rosa, for I should 
love you so much more ; and Blanche and Frederick 
love and will marry, and we would be a hand of 


58 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

brothers and sisters ! But this Lennard this cold 
Lennard ! Tell me that you do not love him, Rosa, 
that you were mistaken in your own emotions that 
you can love me more that you do !" 

He grasped her hand tightly, but she wrested it 
from him, and arose to her feet with a flushed brow. 

" I am sorry that you should be so foolish for 
Blanche s sake/ 

" Stay a moment Rosa is that all 1" 

" All, Pierre ; except that I shall continue to 
esteem you, despite of your rashness, that I am 
sorry you have spoken so hastily, and still feel just 
as kindly to you. Let us go." 

But the tide which had been rising for some time, 
was now at their feet, and she could not retreat from 
the nook where they were without wading in the 
water, which would be dangerous without assistance, 
as she might be washed away. " How careless we 
have been ! Here, Pierre, quick, take my hand before 
the next wave rolls in." 

But he would not stir, he stood looking sullenly at 
her ; the wave came up and dashed them with spray, 
the rocks which surrounded them were too perpendic 
ular to be climbed, while to add to her distress the air 
grew dark with clouds, the wind rushed on, and dis 
tant thunder rolled below the moon. 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 59 

Displeased and frightened, Rosa gathered her dress 
in her hands, and prepared at the risk of her life, to 
make her way around the projecting cliff, but her 
companion seized her .arm and held her back. 

" I would rather that you should die than marry 
Lennard as for me, I do not care about life," he 
said. 

" Rosa! Rosa! Pierre!" 

" Where are you Rosa ? They cannot have gone 
home ! Ro sa!" 

Now if Rosa Lee had been what is called a senti 
mental girl, she might have thought that the romance 
of death would have been a recompense for yielding 
up life at that time but she was not ! therefore, 
when she heard the voices of her friends in different 
accents of wonder and alarm, she set up a shriek that 
she herself was somewhat surprised at, loud, long 
and hearty. 

" Charles ! come quick ! Charles ! I am drowning" 
which was not at the time precisely true, but likely 
soon to be so. " Here around this" rock, she 
was going to say, but Pierre s hand was over her 
mouth. 

The next moment Lennard was by her side, and a 
slight struggle ensued between hiih and Guyarre- 


60 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

Leonard all the while mistaking the object of the 
other s resistance. 

" No no ! Pierre, it is as much as you can do to 
take care of yourself I am strongest, and can carry 
Rosa," thus saying, and thinking it a poor place for 
argument, he snatched the young girl away and 
plunged into the tide. He was almost around the 
cliff, when a wave washed him off his feet, but he was 
a strong bold swimmer he held his treasure with an 
iron grasp, kept his presence of mind and the re 
turning wave cast them safe upon the shore. 

" Here we are, thank Grod ! said he, springing to 
his feet, and lifting Rosa, who was choked with the 
water, and for a moment insensible. 

The moon shining out between two sullen clouds, 
revealed the group, looking relieved, but a little pale 
still Margaret was wiping the dripping brine from 
her sister s face and hair. 

"But Pierre ! oh ! where is Pierre ?" cried 
Blanche, suddenly, and she darted towards the ocean 
as if about to rush into it. Frederick held her back ; 
she trembled like a leaf, and struggled to get away. 

" He is drowned he must be ! he has attempted 
to get back, and been washed away." 

" Let us hope not," replied Lee, but his own voice 
was faint " there is but one way that we can help 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 61 

liim now, let us climb to the top of the cliff, and see 
what can be done. Lennard, come with me. Stay 
with Margaret, Blanche, the way is too rude !" It 
was not too rude for a sister s love to overcome 
she could not stay back, but kept pace with them. 
In a few moments they were looking down into the 
recess, where they could dimly discern the form of 
Pierre as he sat upon a piece of rock, the tide rising 
slowly around him, and every break of the surf wash 
ing nearly over him. They called to him, but he 
made no reply ; which increased their alarm, for they 
supposed he must be nearly suffocated with the dash 
of the waves, and consequently would soon loose his 
hold. 

" A rope oh, if we had a rope !" cried Lennard. 

" I will run for one," murmured Blanche, save 
him, Frederick I depend upon you." 

" I will, Blanche," was the brief assurance, as he 
threw off his coat and prepared to descend the dan 
gerously steep cliff. 

" We will not wait for a rope," said Blanche, grow 
ing more calm at seeing young Lee s coolness and 
determination. Here is my long shawl; and Rosa s 
and Margaret s" for the two sisters had now made 
*;heir way to the group. " Help me to tie them ; 
6 


62 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

here, you, Mr. Lennard ; my fingers are all in a 
tremble." 

The long silken scarfs were knotted firmly to 
gether. 

" I will fasten it around him, and you must drag 
him up," was Frederick s order as he began to de 
scend the rock. It was easier to descend, than to 
get up again, as after clambering down a few feet 
he allowed himself to drop. 

" Pierre ! are you dead ?" he asked, as he shook 
him by the shoulder, not expecting, certainly, the 
answer which he received. " Not yet, but I intend 
to be soon, so let me alone, sir, or you will get the 
worst of it !" 

" I shall not let you alone, for Blanche s sake, 
whatever your motive is in behaving so madly," was 
the firm reply, and his preserver being unusually ac 
tive and powerful, grasped the slender southerner by 
the waist and dragged him struggling beneath the 
dangling silken cord, which he fastened about him, 
despite of his resistance, and then shouting-" Ready," 
lifted him to his shoulders, and continued to assist 
the party above as long as the quarrelsome boots of 
the unthankful youth were within his reach. The 
scarfs were soon lowered again for himself ; he tied 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 63 

them about him to assist his climbing, and in three 
minutes was safe upon the cliff. 

Exhausted by his violent passions, faint and weak, 
Pierre lay upon the ground where Blanche had seated 
herself to hold his head and cover him with kisses. 
Rosa s dress was clinging tightly to her limbs, she 
was shivering with cold, and her hair hung dishevel 
led about her face the thunder rolled nearer the 
moon began to dim again. 

The mingled joy and agony the sublimity and 
absurdity of the scene the grandeur of the ap 
proaching storm -the ungraceful figure Rosa made 
in her wet garments Blanche s anguish and happi 
ness the ridiculous figure Pierre made when kick 
ing and struggling against fate the terrible, romantic 
and preposterous, was too much for Frederick when 
thus blended together his sense of propriety was 
too keen ; he threw himself upon the earth and rolled 
over and over, shouting and convulsed with laughter. 

" I believe that you would laugh if you were dying, 
Fred," spoke Margaret. u Hosa s shivering with 
cold she will have an ague-fit if we do not get back 
quickly." 

Large drops of rain beginning to fall, warned him 
also that it was high time they were hastening back ; 
he gave an arm to his half-drowned sister, Lennard 


64 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

took Pierre under his charge, who was too much ex 
hausted to make objection, and they started at as 
great speed as was practicable, and just as the shower 
descended in torrents met the servants Mrs. Green 
wood had dispatched with shawls and umbrellas. 
They were wet enough to afford to scorn the umbrel 
las, but the large shawls were welcome to the young 
ladies, as they would conceal the woful condition they 
were in. 

A party in a more pitiable plight never took refuge 
in the most fashionable hotel at Newport. 


CHAPTER IV. 

THE story that went about Newport the next day, 
was that the beautiful Rosa Lee had fallen from the 
cliff into the ocean, and that Charles Lennard and 
Pierre Guyarre had risked their lives to save her 
that there was a terrible thunder-storm at the time, 
and everybody concerned got very wet and was very 
much frightened. Of course they were more than 
ever the observed of all observers. 

But Newport had lost its charms for our party. 

They could have laughed the next morning as 
merrily as the most malicious, and have enjoyed the 
adventure after the danger was over, had not the 
unhappy state of Pierre s mind been revealed to 
them, and they were obliged to feel that it was still 
tragic in the intensest degree to him. 

Poor fellow ! he was obliged to bear the congratu 
lations of the ladies upon his bravery to be the 
heroic object of their gentle solicitudes to hear his 
health tenderly enquired after, and be begged to re- 
6* 65 


66 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

late the minute particulars of the fearful scene, until 
his self-accusing spirit could bear it no longer, and 
he shut himself up in his room. 

" Oh, Margaret, I am in such trouble, and I ve 
no one to tell it to but you," said Blanche, two days 
after the above incidents, as she came into Miss 
Lee s bed-room and set down upon a trunk, looking 
pale and dejected. 

" What is it, Blanche ? you cannot have any seri 
ous trouble," and Maggie forgot that she was dres 
sing for dinner, as she threw the beautiful dress she 
had selected, upon the bed, and cast herself, girl- 
fashion, upon the carpet at her friend s feet, and 
kissed the hands dropping so languidly upon her 
knee. " But I have, my dear Miss Lee, and Mrs. 
Greenwood, though she is my aunt, is so gay and so 
careless, that I cannot endure to go to her for sym 
pathy in so delicate a matter. Now to make a be 
ginning of my griefs what am I to do ? After 
Pierre s unhappy behaviour of night-before-last, 
which Rosa of course has told you of, it is foolish to 
think that we can any longer remain together, all of 
us, at Newport. Mrs. Greenwood will not be willing 
to give up her summer pleasure for us, and besides, 

if we should return with her to C , we will be in 

Bosa s neighborhood, and my brother will be miser- 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 67 

able. It will be dangerous for us to return to the 
South now, for it is very sickly there. If we flee to 
some other fashionable resort, my poor Pierre will be 
exposed to all the temptations^ which he has so little 
strength to resist, and which his disappointment will 
cause him to indulge in with reckless boldness. I 
know him so well. Oh, Maggie, I expect that you 
despise him but you would not if you saw his better 
qualities. He is affectionate and yielding as a child, 
and as pure-hearted, his tastes are only too delicately 
fastidious, his nature too refined ; but he has not 
physical nor moral strength to resist the tempests of 
feeling and passion which sometimes shake him and 
then, because his bodily endurance is so soon mas 
tered by his emotions, he flies to the wine-cup to 
strengthen himself." Tears were running down 
Blanche s cheeks, but even grief appeared graceful 
and dignified in her. 

" Yes, I do know him, and respect him, and love 
him," replied Margaret earnestly. " No one can 
help admiring and loving your brother, Blanche, des 
pite of the unpleasant fits of temper to which he 
gives way. There is no member of this party, ex 
cept himself, who does not forgive him, and regard 
him as tenderly as ever. He is so delicate, so sickly, 
that we humor him as we would petted child." 


68 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

Miss Guyarre was somewhat comforted at this, 
brushing away her tears as she enquired 

" But what is to be done in this deplorable state 
of affairs ? If he had only have fallen in love with 
you, Maggie dear, how happy I should be, and all of 
us!" 

" Would we ?" asked Margaret, laughing mysteri 
ously. " You must not be sure of that ; I may not 
be as independent as I seem and you know Pope 
says " Whatever is, is right !" So since your brother 
has made himself ill we must submit, but try to study 
what medicine will be best for him. I have already 
seen a part of the remedy for this great difficulty, if 
we can only get the consent of those most interested. 
Mrs. Greenwood, Rosa, Frederick, and Mr. Lennard, 
can go on to Saratoga, as proposed you and Pierre, 
and I, can go home to papa s, and don t think that 
it will be any disappointment to me I am already 
tired of watering-place happiness, and father and 
Lily will be so pleased to have us back again. If 
two such women as you and I, Blanche, cannot make 
a man happy, when we are trying our best, he de 
serves to be miserable, and if Pierre is not cured, or 
at least rendered comfortably convalescent, when we 
get him into the cool, charming, quiet country, then I 
shall think he is an ungrateful, wilful boy." 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 69 

I, at least shall not be ungrateful," replied 
Blanche, fast growing cheerful, under her com 
panion s influence. 

The young girls sat talking so long, that they 
were not ready for the grand dinner, and had to dine 
in their room. Rosa, whose dinner-toilet Mrs. Green 
wood had been superintending, and who had been at 
the table looking unusually pretty in a pale-green 
tissue silk and rose-buds in her hair, came back to 
them while they were still discussing their plans along 
with the cold chicken, biscuits, and creams which had 
been sent up to them. She was taken into their con 
fidence, and of course had nothing on her own part 
to object, except to the loss of their society. 

" You will have Charlie," said Margaret. 

" And you will find it endurable at Saratoga, even 
without us, if your ladyship continues to be the cen 
tre of so obsequious and attentive a circle, that you 
have not time in which to accept all the invitations to 
walk and ride, and sing, nor hands to carry the 
boquets which are left at your door nor ears to 
listen to the serenades by which you are nightly 
disturbed," said Blanche playfully. 

" Really ! Miss Gruyarre, your want of self-esteem 
is remarkable is that a pretty way you have of 


70 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

praising yourself, by laying your conquests at my 
door?" 

" You are both altogether too modest," interrupted 
Margaret ; " here Rosa ! please to fasten this clasp 
for me, and then we will go and seek the consent of 
the rest of our friends." 

It was a disappointment to all to be obliged to 
separate. Mrs. Greenwood was reluctant to resign 
two of her youthful beauties, especially her neice, 
but confessed that it was best, Frederick was for the 
moment dumb with consternation, at the thought of 
being separated so soon from Miss Guyarre. But 

when he reflected that he should meet her at C 

upon his return there, and that it might be the means 
in the future of having more of her society, he ceased 
fuming and fretting, and gave an ungraceful consent. 
Lennard s happiness not being seriously interfered 
with, he had nothing to do but to approve. As for 
Pierre, he was docile as a child, and seemed almost 
glad of the prospect of quiet. 

There was a loud hum of regret among the visitors 
generally, when it became known that Mrs. Green 
wood s party were to leave the next day. A number 
of gentlemen announced their intention of following 
her immediately to Saratoga, billets, boquets, and 
beaux besieged their attention and that night a 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 71 

serenade, the most exquisite and costly, arose beneath 
their windows. 

The worst of it was, that the young gentlemen 
had so many invitations to supper, after the dancing 
for the evening was over, the men with whom they 
had become intimate were so courteous, that they 
did not escape from the contagion of fashionable 
dissipation as entirely as they desired. 

Frederick, himself in a condition to mistake a hall 
pillar for a Hebe, assisted Pierre to his room and 
Lennard but as Rosa never found him out, we will 
not tell of him. 

The next afternoon they were gone from Newport. 
When they arrived at that stage of their journey at 
which they were to separate, there was quite a mel 
ancholy feeling. Frederick, who, although he knew 
that Miss Guyarre must be aware of his love, had 
not yet found courage to confess it, audacious as he 
was in all other matters, ventured to press her hand, 
and to express all that he could in those fine eyes of 
his. Rose was saddened for several hours by the 
thought of the despairing gaze Pierre had fixed upon 
her at parting ; but her nature was too buoyant, and 
her own circumstances too pleasant to allow a long 
indulgence even in regret, 

" What a happy surprise we shall give them at 


72 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

home," said Margaret to Pierre, as the cars which 
conveyed them stopped at the village of C . 

He could not hut return her hright smile, and sprang 
out to attend to the haggage, with a more interested 
expression than he had worn since they parted from 
their friends. 

" I m afraid your brother will get crushed amid 
that pile of trunks." continued Miss Lee laughing, 
as she looked out of the station-house window. " I 
beg your pardon, Blanche, but it is a wonder to me 
why such an indolent, fastidious man as he, does not 
keep a servant to do such things for him." 

" We certainly were never without before, but 
Aunt Greenwood begged us not to bring any of our 
colored servants to the north, and Pierre can t find a 
valet here that he will have about him. My Coral 
cried pitifully when I came away and left her I caa 
get along better than Pierre, tho-ugh, for Mrs. Green 
wood s maid is almost as good as Coral." 

" I shall have to be your maid at Mapel-Grove," 
said Maggie, Rose and I have always delighted to 
dress each other : and Papa, who you have already 
observed probably, has some idea of everybody s hav 
ing been born to do at least some small thing that 
was useful, has insisted upon our keeping our own 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 73 

room and toilet in order. It is one of our recre 
ations we like it." 

" I suppose so but at the south, we are so languid 
every exertion is avoided. I feel like another 
creature here, except upon your intolerably warm 


" And you are almost getting roses in your cheeks, 
my southern lily ! I shall be sorry for that ! your 
pearly complexion, so tintless and clear, is very 
beautiful to us." 

Their companion, having seen the baggage safely 
deposited in the depot, until called for, now came for 
them, and they concluded to walk out to the Grove, 
as the afternoon was cool, but as they passed along 
Main street, bowing to their acquaintances, and sha 
king hands with their friends, they heard a glad 
shout of "Margaret! Margaret!" And there was 
Lily riding in state in the new carriage, and Jupe 
showing his white teeth on the box. He drove up 
to the side walk for them to get in. 

cc What are you doing, Lily, riding about alone ?" 
asked her sister, when the child got breath again, 
after the kisses in which they had half smothered 
her. 

" Why, Flora Smith came back from schoo&gt; yester 
day it is vacation now and I ve been tfl soil on 


74 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

her. I asked Jupe to take the same horses, and 
make things look as nice as he did for you, when you 
went to call on Miss Guyarre." 

" Hi !" chuckled ebony, " hadn t nothing else to 
do to-day but to company Miss Lily where she 
choose. Had to bey orders, Miss Margaret, though 
the blacks were rather wild with running in the 
meadow for a week had to bey young missus" and 
he looked round affectionately at the little seven- 
years-old lady he had been conveying about C - 
in all the grandeur she had desired. 

They laughed with Jupe at the aspirations which 
had arisen in Miss Lily s mind upon finding herself 
the mistress at Maple Grove ; she blushed, and would 
have been somewhat disconcerted, but they were 
turning up the avenue, and a glimpse of Mr. Lee 
walking about rather lonesomely under the trees, di 
verted her thoughts into eagerness to be the first to 
announce the return. 

" Guess who I ve brought back with me, papa !" 
she shouted. 

He did not have to exert his guessing faculties 
much, as the carriage came in full sight just as he 
looked up. 

He was satisfied to hear that they were tired of 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 75 

watering-places, and glad enough to get them back, 
not to find any fault with their hrief stay. 

If there was any purer water in the United States 
than in the spring down by the oak-tree, any better 

place to bathe, than in C lake, any fresher air 

or cooler shade, or pleasanter verandahs than at 
Maple Grove, then there would be some excuse for 
their undergoing the dust and heat of travelling, and 
the misery of crowded hotels, he said. 

" But the ocean, father, that was better than 

C lake that was grand ! and the company was 

amusing if not instructive, urged Maggie. 
" Nevertheless, I am glad to be at home, and we are 
dusty, and fatigued, and hungry, too ; so Lily will 
order us a good tea, while we go to our rooms." 

The atmosphere of freshness and peace about Maple 
Grove was to Pierre Guyarre s feverish mind what it 
was to his invalid body, soothing and strengthening. 
Margaret so gentle, so kind, Blanche so devoted, 
seemed to remove every thorn from his pathway and 
to keep him treading upon roses. He was not in 
sensible to the goodness of these fair creatures ; he 
grew again as amiable as he was interesting; and 
the music of his voice and his guitar made the Grove 
more melodious than a chorus of nightingales would 
have done. He had now but one jealousy, and that 


76 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

was of the petting which his sister bestowed upon 
Lily he wanted to do all that himself. It may be 
that in the child s artless tones, her golden curls and 
dimpled cheeks he saw a miniature of Rosa the 
sisters resembled each other strongly and he 
would play for her for hours unweariedly, would walk 
with her in the garden, tell her about the gorgeous 
birds and brilliant flowers of the tropics, and the gro 
tesque manners of the little negro children, the beau 
tiful shells he had gathered upon shining Southern 
sands the opera houses of the Cuban ladies, and 
how they rode about in strange carriages after sunset, 
with their heads decked with flowers as she had seen 
Blanche s about their delicious evenings, when 
everybody was happy, until he completely fascinated 
the heart and imagination of the little girl. She 
would leave all other occupations and run to his 
side if he spoke to her, and so entranced was she by 
fairy visions of that wonderful Southern land, that 
she would have bid good-bye to home if he asked 
her to go with them when they returned. 

" You have bewitched Lily/ Margaret used to say, 
" the Arabian Nights would not be half so entertain 
ing to her as your stories. I am afraid that Maple 
Grove, which she has always thought so lovely, will 
seem dull to her after you are gone." 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 77 

They had not been at home two weeks, before they 
were astonished one evening upon sitting down to 
tea, to find Frederick peering in at the door. 
Whether he or Blanche blushed the most violently, 
could not be affirmed. " Saratoga was dull," he 
said, " miserably stupid ! Nobody there worth 
speaking to so he had come where he could please 
himself better." 

It was unusual for a man of his age, and enjoying 
his advantages, to find Saratoga as unendurable ; but 
nobody questioned his veracity, nor troubled him 
with puzzling questions. Rosa was not there to keep 
up a mimic war with him, and the others were dis 
posed to let him keep the truth to himself until he 
saw fit to acknowledge it. 

That he was brought to the confessional that very 
evening of his return, was owing to his temerity in 
proposing to go with Blanche down to the spring 
under the oak, to get some very cold water to make 
lemonade. 

Margaret had crushed the lemons and sugar with 
Pierre s aid, who had given her several receipes for 
making cooling drinks with fresh fruit, as he made 
them at the South ; she had laughingly refused to 
add any wine to the lemons. They had wondered 
why the pitcher of spring-water did not make its 


78 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

appearance ; had sustained quite a spirited discussion 
about Cuba ; and wondered over again what had 
become of that absent pair, when the delinquents 
arrived. 

In answer to Pierre s demand of the reason of 
their long delay, Frederick as he sat the pitcher 
down, averred " That there was a legend connected 
with the spring, and that any one who went there by 
starlight, and under the right influences, could call 
a witch up out of the water, who would tell him of 
his future fortunes." 

" The fairy told you a happy story, I know," said 
Margaret, looking lovingly into her brother s glow 
ing face ; and then stealing around to his side, she 
pressed his hand, for Blanche s face, as she stood by 
the lamp, had revealed to her the secret of the 
water-spirit s prophecy. Blanche had not spoken 
since she came in, but stood gravely binding some 
wild-grass and violets together, allowing her com 
panion to say what he willed about their absence. 

Let it happen as many thousand of times as it has 
and must, in the histories of the world, there is al 
ways a poetical and peculiar interest, even to obser 
vers, hovering about a young maiden who has just 
acknowledged, for the first time, the overwhelming 
happiness of loving and being beloved. Old and 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 79 

young, and gentle and rude, will turn with a softened 
thought to regard her. And Blanche, as she stood 
there with eyes bent upon her violets, had never 
been so beautiful before. Something joyous, elate, 
and yet solemn, shone from her form ; a faint flush 
troubled the repose of her cheeks, and a tender glow 
upon her lips almost breathed of the consent they 
had given. Margaret s gaze lingered affectionately 
upon her, but she did not meet those drooping eyes 
until she brought her a glass of lemonade ; and then 
there was a smile, a blush, a tear, and all that ; while 
Frederick, in a sudden outbreak of happiness, seized 
upon the helpless Lily, who ought to have been 
a-bed ; and after whirling her around like a top, tos 
sed her up, and left her dizzy and confused upon 
Pierre s shoulders, whereby her dignity was some 
what wounded, and she slid back to the floor as 
quickly as possible. 

" If I ever grow so large that you cannot treat me 
so, I shall be glad," she said, poutingly. 

" Well, you never will, unless you go to bed earli 
er," was the sage reply. So, off to bed, little 
one !" and that was all the consolation she got for 
his ill-treatment. 

The next thing they heard was Towser growling 
on the piazza ; for when Fred was particularly happy, 


80 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

inferior creatures were wise to keep out of sight, 
lie had such a thoughtless way of bestowing his exu 
berant spririts upon them ; and although his hand 
some, glowing face never failed to diffuse pleasure 
wherever it appeared, yet little children, dogs, and 
nervous people confessed to a feeling of timidity in 
his presence. 

Pierre s serenity was very much disturbed by 
Frederick s advent. He demanded the entire devo 
tion of some heart to his happiness, or there was 
restlessness and repining ; and now, that more than 
ever he felt the want of some satisfying love, his sis 
ter, who had been to him almost like half of his own 
soul, had partially deserted him for a newer affection. 
He did not wish it to be otherwise when she came to 
his side, he sent her back to her lover s, but it forced 
upon him a feeling of loneliness that was to him un 
endurable. He had no relatives, no mother, the 
woman he loved was soon to be married to another 
and brooding upon these things, instead of making 
himself happy with the thousand other pleasant 
circumstances which surrounded him, he grew moody, 
and took almost entirely to his guitar for solace and 
company. He had a fancy for pleasing Lily, but 
aside from that, he did not exert himself to be enter 
taining to anybody. 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 81 

He taught her to play upon his guitar to speak 
some musical Spanish phrases ; and what pleased her 
most of all, they took long rides on horseback all 
over the country. 

Enthralled in " Love s young dream," Blanche for 
a while shut out the clouds in the sky of the future, 
and walked contented through the fairy land of the 
present. Why should she not be happy ? There 
was nothing but the thought of her brother s unplea 
sant position to prevent her being too supremely hap 
py. She kept hoping that " something would happen" 
to divert his mind from Rosa, or in some way to 
change the circumstances. And something did hap 
pen, but not in the way she hoped for. 

It was well known to all in the family, that Rosa 
and Lennard were to be married somewhere about 
the next Christmas, and Frederick could not endure 
the thought of allowing Miss Guyarre to go back to 
the south before he had a right to accompany her. 
He wanted her to consent to a double wedding, and 
then they could all go south together, if her affairs 
at Magnolia Grove needed her presence so soon. But 
against all such plans rose up the image of her broth 
er, and she resolutely refused to leave him in such 
embarrassing loneliness. She w*ould go home with 
her brother as soon as the weather became cooler, 


82 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

and she hoped that a winter on his plantations, sur 
rounded by different influences, would make him 
forget his unhappy love ; but, if he did not, she 
should never forsake him, until he too had found a 
friend that would supply the place of all others. 

Because he had to acknowledge very much against 
his inclination that this was a sisterly and wise con 
clusion, Frederick was frequently in an ill humor, 
for which his poor horse in many a fast and furious 
ride had to suffer. Unfortunate man ! It was pro 
voking, without doubt and yet, though Pierre with 
his waywardness, and melancholy, and fits of temper, 
stood so much in other people s way, no one seemed 
to feel any resentment against him. When his 
brother-in-law elect was ready to frighten Jupiter 
out of his five senses, to send Lily suddenly to Miss 
Guyarre for protection, to drive his horses to death, 
break the carriage and endanger his own neck when 
Towser sneaked out of the way when Bridget de 
clared with lifted hands that " She never seen such a 
harum-scarum young man before" he was as gentle 
as a Count to Pierre, and never wounded him by a 
hint of the reason of his half-happy desperation. 
There was such a gentleness, such an affectionate 
manner and poetic delicacy about the young South 
erner that nobody wanted to quarrel with him. 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 83 

In the meantime, as the weeks flew by and Sep 
tember began to ripen the peaches and scatter the 
flowers, the people at Maple Grove began to expect 
the return of the party from Saratoga. 


CHAPTER V. 

THEY were looking for Rosa at Maple grove. Her 
last letter had assured them that Mrs. Greenwood 
was at last wearied with Saratoga, and they were 
coming home on Wednesday. Thinking that they 
would probably arrive in the afternoon train, Jupiter 
was sent with the carriage, and directions given to 
bring Mrs. Greenwood and Lennard to tea. 

The careful Margaret, who prided herself upon 
her house-wifely accomplishments, went out herself 
to prepare some dainty dish for the table, while Lily, 
in the excitement of the occasion, danced in and out 
like a humming bird, darting down the avenue, to 
look for the first toss of the horses heads as they 
came up the little rise in the wood, twining around 
the pillars of the portico, blooming as their roses, 
and bursting back into the hall again to ask Pierre 
if "He didn t wish they would come?" Nobody 
else felt inclined to ask him the question, but allow 
ed him to sit silently upon the stair, with his book. 

84 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 85 

Blanche fancied that he must be annoyed by the ear 
nest little interrogator : so she called her away, and 
they went together to a shady seat under a maple 
tree and sat quietly waiting. 

" There ! there ! I see them there s the car 
riage !" cried Lily, at last, jumping down from the 
seat and running down the path. 

Pierre turned deadly pale as he held his face down 
over his book, and Margaret, passing by, did not dare 
to address him. The hurry and joy, though, was all 
lost j Jupiter turned up towards the mansion with a 
less majestic sweep than usual, and they soon per 
ceived that the carriage was empty. 

" Well, they will come in the ten o clock train to 
night, I suppose, " said Mr. Lee, with a little sigh of 
disappointment. 

" Father has a yearning after the bright face of 
his Rosa," said Margaret, without the least bit of 
jealousy, as she turned towards him affectionately, 
at the sound of that sigh. 

" The Rose is no fairer flower than this," he said, 
kissing her, " but it is such a wild, mild Rose that it 
has a singular charm." 

" Well done !" said Fred, with his saucy laugh, 
" you are growing poetical, father ; and faith, Rosa 
affects a good many people in that way ! As they 


86 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

hav n t arrived though, you are safe in concluding 
that the ten o clock train will bring them. What do 
you say, all, to a delightful walk to the station-house 
to meet them ; they will feel flattered at the wel 
come, and we will have a glorious walk besides." 

Everybody consented except Lily, who, not being 
included in the project, had nothing to do but sub 
mit to her disappointment, and win Maggie s consent 
to sit up until they returned. 

" In the meantime," said our house-keeper, " we 
will eat the muffins, which promised to be delicious, 
and try to do them as much justice as though a part 
of them had fallen into the mouths for which they 
were intended." 

They went in to tea ; where Lily, who sat next to 
Pierre, took away what little appetite the circum 
stances had left him, by chatting confidentially about 
the stories Rosa would tell her of Saratoga, and 
wondering if they would be as nice as those he had 
told her of Cuba, winding up with 

" How fine it would be if he would ask Rosa to 
go along with them, when he took her there, as he 
had promised. What times they would have ! such 
times !" 

The night was cool and starry when the young 
people started for the village, leaving Mr. Lee and 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 87 

Lily to wait for their return. As they did not care 
about waiting long at the station-house, and had an 
hour in which to walk half a mile, they lingered by 
the way, attracted here and there by every wayward 
fancy. 

" There are clouds coming up in the west," said 
Margaret . 

" To-morrow will not be as pleasant as to-day," 
remarked Blanche. 

They had ten minutes to wait when they arrived at 
the depot, and they jested them away as if they 
were not the last happy ten minutes they should see 
in a long time. 

" How I love the iron-horse," said Blanche, in a 
dreamy tone, as they stood upon the platform of the 
station-house and looked up and down the track 
where it was faintly illuminated by the lantern of the 
switch-tender. " He is so strong, so swift, so tireless, 
that there is something almost sublime in him he 
seems, at the moment when he sweeps by, superior to 
his creator man, and one shrinks at the thought of 
his weakness and insignificance. Hark ! I hear him 
now, miles away, his quick breath echoed by the 
hills." 

They listened, and heard the first sounds of his 
panting breast, and the distant rattle of the train he 


88 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

dragged, upon the cool and starry night ; and their 
hearts gave an anticipating bound as if they already 
felt the clasp of their friends hands ; the next mo 
ment a shrill scream from the approaching engine 
startled into life the sleepy hangers-on who had been 
waiting at the depot, the bell rang, a crowd gathered 
upon the platform the great fiery eye of the loco 
motive flashed out of the far off shadows, lighting 
up his path with disdainful brightness, while he came 
hotly on the ground groaned beneath his tread 
with clamor, speed and impatience the train snorted 
up and paused. Our friends leaned eagerly forward 
to look there was yes, there was Lennard stepping 
out of the third passenger car Mrs. Greenwood 
Rosa. Rosa turned to step back into the car for her 
shawl which she had left upon her seat. 

" My God !" exclaimed Frederick, shrinking back, 
then springing forward, he shouted " Rosa !" 

What was the matter ? he had caught the flashing 
eye of a second fiery monster rushing furiously along 
over the path of the first or, right on towards the 
doomed car, and Rosa was in it, and Lennard, they did 
ot see nor hear there was no time it was too late ! 
There was a crash, an appalling tumult, groans, 
shouting, confusion and horror. 

We are almost ashamed to record so small an 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 89 

accident, by which there was but three persons 
killed instantly, and eleven more or less maimed and 
injured. Had we not hoped that the youth and gay- 
ety, beauty and witchery of Rosa Lee had made her 
many friends, we would not trouble you with so small 
a thing as her being dragged forth from that frightful 
chaos a crushed and senseless human form, in which 
the breath of life might linger agonizingly a few 
hours more. 

She was borne home during the period of her insen 
sibility, and after hours of deathly suspense, it was 
declared by her physicians that she might linger 
weeks and months, but that she nevermore would walk, 
nor rise from her bed of suffering. From that mo 
ment a shadow rested upon Maple Grove. No sound 
of laughter or music disturbed its echoes ; darkened 
rooms, low voices, and at night a dim light shining 
from one room where friends kept watch by a couch 
of dreary pain. 

It was two weeks before Lennard, who had had an 
arm broken and been otherwise injured, could drag 
himself into the presence of Rosa, who recognised 
him by a faint smile, murmuring his name, the first 
word she had spoken since the fatal night. His ago 
ny of mind was too great to bear, and they were 
compelled to hurry him from her sight, lest its be- 

8* 


90 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

trayal should affect her. It was not until still anoth 
er week had passed that Margaret summoned courage 
to tell him the terrible truth, that Rosa, their Rosa 
his Rosa was nevermore to walk forth upon the 
beautiful earth nevermore to be free from pain. 

" I cannot have it so," he cried out fiercely. " It 
shall not be !" And he paced the long piazza with 
heavy, defiant strides ; then when this vain resistance 
of fate passed away, he bowed his head upon poor 
Margaret s lap, and trembled and wept like a fright 
ened child. 

" Why was it she who was singled out from that 
motley throng the beautiful, the young, the happy 
for such a life ? Aye ! can you answer me that, 
Maggie ?" he burst forth again in the same impetuous 
manner, after having nearly exhausted himself with 
weeping. 

It added greatly to the sister s already over 
whelming sorrow, to see such indications of feeling 
from one of so calm a temperament as Lennard. She 
had not yet gained composure of her own, so that 
she might attempt to console him. 

Blanche had been a " ministering angel" in this 
time of affliction : her gentle hands were ready to 
undertake kind offices, which those unnerved by grief 
were unable to perform. By day and night she was 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 91 

tireless, tender and devoted, until Margaret could 
not bear to part from her an hour ; and even Mr. 
Lee, shaken by this heavy trouble, seemed to depend 
upon her cheerfulness to keep him from sinking. 

The weeks wore away in a dull, slow round. As 
soon as Lennard could escape from the business 
duties which occupied his time until dinner, he was 
out at the Grove, and in the sick room, sitting pa 
tiently hour after hour in its stillness and darkness, 
satisfied for the moment, if the flowers he brought, 
the words he uttered, called up a smile upon the 
pale and wasted features of his Rosa. 

Frederick for the time being was entirely changed. 
A woman could hardly be more gentle and thought 
ful. 

" I believe that Pierre is the most miserable of all 
of us, except poor Rosa herself," he said once to 
Blanche, as they sat talking of the blight which had 
come upon their happiness. 

" He loves her as much as Lennard, yet has not 
the consolation of lingering by her side and doing 
those affectionate services which afford a gleam of 
comfort to Charles. Mrs. Greenwood says that she 
hears him up in his room almost all night, wandering 
about like a perturbed spirit, and that she is afraid 
that his health will fail entirely. He has looked like 


92 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

a ghost ever since the awful shook he received that 
fatal night." 

" There is but obe thing that will restore him, and 
that is for us to go home immediately. It is growing 
too bleak for him at the North, even if his mind was 
not so engrossed by what surrounds him here. I must 
leave you, Frederick, and dear Rosa. She has many 
friends who will do all that can be done for her ; but 
Pierre has only me ; I must go with him back to our 
own home, where we will wait for better days." 

" It seems as if better days were never to come," 
said her lover, moodily ; " as if they never had been 
except in dreams that the gloomy present would 
always continue." 

" Do you know Rosa said the same thing to me 
this morning ? I cannot forget her faint and melan 
choly whisper &lt; Blanche ! was I ever out of pain ? 
was I ever well and happy ? or is it a dream of some 
past time before this life came upon me ? Shall I 
ever be well again be well enough to laugh, to run 
out of doors and breathe the cool air, and sing aloud? 
Did Charles expect that we were to be married ? 
Or is it all a dream, Blanche ? Alas, poor child ! 
can it be possible that she never will be out of that 
eick-room again!" 

" She does not know that yet ; it will be hard to 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 93 

tell her the whole truth ; she will feel it more keenly 
when she is enough better to feel the wish strong 
upon her to get up and go out into the world again. 
I wish every day that she knew the worst, but I do 
not know who there is that can bear to tell her." 

" It will be a sad message for any one to bear." 

" If you must go away from us, Blanche, I should 
wish her to hear it while you are with us. We will 
need all the help we can get to keep up our courage. 
But I had hoped that you could remain with us thia 
winter." 

" I must go with Pierre, and go soon ; it is stormy 
and cold already, and we dare not delay. I do not 
know that Pierre himself will consent to leave, but I 
shall use every inducement, for I think that his 
health and life depend upon it. If it will be too 
severe a trial for Maggie to communicate her fate to 
Hosa, I think the doctor, who is so kind a friend, 
will be the one to speak with her about it, and I will 
be with her at the time ; to-morrow, if he thinks it 
safest and best." 

So the next day the truth was told to the sick 
girl. She uttered one faint cry of despair, and then 
lay for a long time in silence as if struggling for 
resignation. 

The hot tears of Blanche dropping fast upon her 


94 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

wasted hand, induced her to make some exertion to 
overcome her emotion. 

" I think I can bear it," she whispered, unclosing 
her eyes. " I have borne so much, already but 
Lennard / pity him it is hard it is hard, 
Blanche !" 

She was not permitted to speak again until she 
was rested, when the first question she asked, was, 
"If Charles knew it?" Upon being assured that he 
had known it for weeks, a single tear rolled down 
her cheeks, and she murmured " He still loves me 
is kind, more kind than ever." 

Blanche now began preparations for going home. 
The whole family felt as it if were impossible to spare 
her. While they could not deny that it was the only 
prudent course as far as concerned Pierre, who was 
wasting away almost as rapidly as Rosa herself. * 

When the day of departure at length came, it was 
a hard struggle for both to take leave of the invalid. 
Pierre stood a few moments by her bed-side, gazing 
upon her with those strongly expressive and melan 
choly eyes of his, while he grew so pale that he 
looked like one about to faint. 

"Rosa, dear Rosa," he said, bending down, and 
speaking in a touching, impassioned tone, " if you 
*ive to see those who now love you grow cold and 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 95 

careless, and weary of attending upon your days of 
pain, do not forget that there is one who knows it 
impossible that he shall ever love you less. If he 
whose right it is now to watch by you, grows weary 
and Rosa, the time is coming swiftly then one 
whose love is as deathless as his soul, may have a 
chance to prove that it is you, sick or well, old or 
young, beautiful, or blighted by suffering, you that 
he loves, and not an outward semblance. Good 
bye." 

Those who were present did not hear his words, 
but they saw that they agitated the sick girl. It 
was not the renewed assurance of so passionate an 
attachment it was the startling fear of something 
hitherto unfeared, that troubled her. 

His address was cruel, but he had not meant it 
to be so. 


CHAPTER VI. 

Charles Leonard was ashamed to acknowledge to 
his own soul that he loved Rosa less ; that it was 
becoming a duty and not a pleasure to spend hia 
hours of leisure by her side ; that her changed coun 
tenance, the absence of bloom, beauty, high spirits 
and the thousand charms of youthful gayety could so 
soon deaden his passion. 

For four months he had not neglected her a day j 
he had absented himself entirely from those scenes 
of enjoyment where he was once delighted to please 
and be pleased. 

Through the holy-days he had refused her earnest 
pleadings, that he would go out as usual and be gay 
and happy, and not shut himself up in that lonely 
chamber. 

He assured her that it was not dreary or lonely 
where she was that she was society and gayety 
enough for him that to bring a smile to her pale 
face was worth an hundred flatteries from the idle 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 97 

crowd. Yet he was conscious that it was irksome to 
be so restricted by a sense of duty that it was hard 
to be going in and out of that dreary chamber with 
a care-worn face, instead of with the joyful elation 
of the bridegroom, which he had anticipated would 
then be. He began to look back with doubt to the 
time when there had been roses upon those pallid 
cheeks, and dimples about that feverish mouth ; wteu 
the poor invalid lying there forever in that one po 
sition, had bounded airily by his side, her bright hair 
floating, and her sweet laugh ringing upon the sum 
mer air. 

And it was because that he was ashamed to be, 
as all men are, so selfish in their love, so brief in 
their endurance of what frets their will, that he began 
to seek a relief from unpleasant thoughts in a habit 
which he had always struggled against, and long 
thrown aside entirely. 

It disturbed Rosa it kept her awake when she 
might otherwise have forgotten her constant suffering 
in sleep, to think how often he kissed her with the 
wine odor lingering warmly in his breath. She re 
membered that he had avowed to her a weakness 
against which it was necessary that he should strug 
gle ; she feared that he was yielding to it j and with 
a true woman s tenderness, she blamed herself for 


98 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

being so unfortunate as to have rendered him un 
happy, and so exposed him to temptation. 

" It is because I have made him miserable, or be 
cause he is so wretched upon my account. I wish he 
would give me up forget me and be happy with 
those, who like him, are well and gay and full of 
hope. It must not be. I shall not be the means of 
keeping him from any happiness that might other 
wise fall to his lot. I will give him up." 

Dear child ! while she was still schooling her heart 
for the great trial ; still praying for patience and 
self-denial to give up the society so precious to her, 
she began to feel that it would require but little effort 
on her part to break ties which he was swiftly un 
loosing. 

Still the weeks rolled on in a dull and dreary 
round. Lennard came every day, but his calls were 
brief and constrained. 

In the three or four instances in which he had 
suffered a day to pass without going to the Grove, 
Frederick learned that he had been engaged with 
dissipated companions and was in a condition unfit to 
appear. 

It began to be rumored throughout C that 

young Lennard, who had been so highly regarded by 
all, was yielding to bad influences, and becoming 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 99 

somewhat reckless. Almost every one pitied him 
They laid his excuses at the door of his unhappiness. 

" It was such a sad case !" they said. " He loved 
Rosa Lee so devotedly, he could never be happy 
again. They should not be surprised if he died of a 
broken heart, or gave himself up to excess. It 
would be better if he could forget her better for 
both !" 

Perhaps it would. It certainly would have been 
a case of extraordinary attachment, if he had not 
done so as quickly as he did. But somehow, when the 
faith of a woman is thus put to the test, she is apt to 
bear it bravely, and at least not to make it an excuse 
for perpetual evil-doing on her part. No ! if Len- 
nard had been able to resign his hopes of a more glow 
ing happiness, and to be true to his affianced in life and 
death, the consciousness of his own nobility would 
have afforded him some pure contentment, and he 
would not have been half as unhappy as he was. It 
was because he was not satisfied with his own heart, 
that he drowned its accusings in the wine cup. 

Even the gentle Margaret pitied him, and wished 
him to be free from all obligations to continue 
near her sister, if that would save him from impend 
ing danger. She even sought to convince him that 
he did himself injustice not to banish as far as possi- 


100 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

ble from his mind the thought that he had once 
anticipated a happiness which fate had denied him. 
Rosa, herself, spoke of it so bravely and concealed so 
passionately her tears, that they were deceived as to 
how deeply the arrow had pierced her soul 

" Maggie, dear," she began, one bright day in the 
early Spring, when she had been cheered by the 
sunshine let in freely into the long darkened cham 
ber, and by the delicate wind-flowers which lay upon 
her pillow, " I want you to bring me a mirror. I want 
to see how much I am changed." 

" You are not changed at all in the hearts that love 
you," was the affectionate reply. " So never mind 
the mirror, Rosa." 
v The invalid heaved a deep sigh. 

" Then one heart never did truly love me," was 
her thought. She did not speak it, but pleaded for 
a glass, and Margaret at last brought a small mirror 
and held it where she, propped upon her pillows, 
could gaze upon the reflection of her then wan coun 
tenance. 

" I am sadly altered I should not know myself, 
Maggie." 

" If it was not for that cruel pain which keeps you 
so pale, you would be prettier than ever, my sweet 
Rosa. That is a delicate, spiritual face you see the v e 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION! 101 

the curls are the same, dancing, bright, profuse 
curls as ever the eyes are dim with pain, perhaps, 
but they brighten so with love and are so beautiful 
with patience. Indeed , darling, you are prettier than 
ever. Now, when I put these blossoms in your hair 
don t you think so?" and Maggie kissed the pale 
forehead. 

" I do not know these hollows in my cheeks are 
not lovely," replied the invalid, bringing her delicate, 
transparent hand with an effort up to her face. " But 
I do not care for the loss of beauty, Maggie ; don t 
think me so foolish as that. I wanted to see myself, 
of course ; it is a long time since I have beheld my 
best friend," and she smiled. 

"You ought to be called Lily, now, and I be 
Rose," said her little sister, as she laid her bright 
head close to hers upon the pillow, scattered over 
with the flowers she had been out in the meadows to 
gather for the beloved one. 

"Yes \ a poor, broken, blighted Lily !" murmured 
Rosa, and sighed again. 

It is not strange that a beauty should be so proud 
of her personal attractions and consider them of su 
perior importance, and all her qualities of heart and 
mind as inferior, when she finds of what priceless 
value they are in the eyes of men. Or that Rosa 
9* 


102 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

Lee should lament the loss of loveliness which she 
was but little vain of while it was hers, but whose 
worth she learned when it had vanished. 

" A blighted, broken Lily," she repeated softly to 
herself, " cast aside while withering never to be 
worn upon the bosom of a friend." 

Now that Rosa was as well, perhaps, as she ever 
would be, and could talk, and see her old acquain 
tances, and enjoy the boquets which were brought 
her, the books that were read to her, and take some 
interest in passing events, she became anxious to 
promote the happiness of her friends. Frederick, 
who had been so tender and true, through the worst 
of her trials, she was determined should not delay 
his marriage with Blanche upon account of her dis 
appointments. Her only happiness now, she said, 
would be to see those she loved in pleasant circum 
stances. 

Blanche s letters through the winter had not al 
ways been of the most hopeful character. She had 
constant anxiety about her brother, who, at one time, 
she would state, was away from her in the city, lead 
ing a life of reckless magnificence, and again, at home 
moody and ill. 

In answer to Frederick s eloquent appeal, begging 
permission to come after her, she replied that Pierre was 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 103 

then dangerously sick, and she did not know as it 
would ever be that she should be at liberty to marry, 
and so in a measure forsake him ; but as she was 
evidently lonely, melancholy, and in want of the 
friendship and help of a stronger spirit, it did not 
deter her lover from replying that he should come 
to her immediately, and that she might then do as 
she thought best for all of them. 

It was well known in C , where Frederick 

Lee had always lived, and was universally esteemed, 
that his object in taking so long a journey to the 
South, was to bring home the beautiful stranger who 
had won their hearts the previous summer. He met 
congratulations and gay wishes upon every hand, and 
the evening previous to the day of his departure, a 
number of his old friends gave a supper in his hon 
our. It was the first affair of the kind which he had 
attended since Rosa s illness, though Lennard had 
been as gay as ever for the last few weeks. 

The supper was a luxurious one, and his com 
panions so full of vivacity that Frederick could not 
but oast aside all care for the present hour, and join 
with his old mirthfulness and wit in the festivities. 

He regarded Lennard in silent amazement at 
times, a great change had come over his manners ; 
instead of being quiet, reserved, a check upon the 


104 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

mischievous wildness of his friends, and giving utter 
ance, when he did speak, to some quaint and keen 
sally which would set the table in a roar, he was the 
most boisterous of the party, drinking incessantly, 
and making constant attempts to attract attention to 
his own brilliant efforts. 

About one o clock in the morning any one with 
eyes that can see through closed doors, might have 
amused himself with the scene got up in the Young 
Men s Club Room, in the second story of the 
American, in C . 

These clubs and champagne suppers and the like, 
must always remain a wonder to women, who cannot 
comprehend why their husbands, brothers, lovers 
and friends, so agreeable, so polite in their company, 
can have tastes and enjoyments too gross for them 
to share. 

Frederick and his friends had eaten all that the 
circumstances would possibly allow ; the servants 
had done bringing in and clearing away the rare 
courses which the epicure par excellence of the Club, 
had ordered ; and after having, as a parting duty, 
strewed the table with bottles and cigars, they retired 
and left their masters to the undisturbed enjoyment 
of each other s society. 

The flowers which lavishly adorned the room began 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 105 

to droop with mortification at some of the rude wit 
ticisms of people they had heretofore had a leaning 
towards, and their sweet breath, which had so refined 
the atmosphere and added to the delicate flavor of 
the first soups and viands, was now quite choked 
and expired convulsively, being overpowered by the 
fumes of costly and exquisite tobacco, voluptuously 
inhaled through foreign hookahs, and dispersed indo 
lently through the eyes and nostrils, or puffed 
dreamily from unutterably perfect cigars. Artists 
seeking new and inimitable groups and postures in 
which to present the heroes of statuary and painting, 
might have here studied unstudied grace, and caught 
the effect of a gesture in position, which would have 
rendered its preserver immortal. 

Lennard, who had sung himself hoarse, smoked 
himself sleepy, and drank himself stupid, lay upon a 
lounge, with the amber mouth-piece of his Turkish 
pipe between his fingers, looking on with dull eyes at 
the rest, and joining in with a loud laugh, whenever 
they had anything to be merry about. Another young 
man was paying his respects to his friend in the 
mirror, while another, who saw double, in attempting 
to take a comfortable seat in an arm-chair, had set 
down in the one which was not^ and being too indo 
lent to redeem his mistake, still occupied the floor. 


106 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

Frederick could not deny to his own conscience 
but that he was a little more exhilarated than he had 
any right to be, but he felt very happy and bright. 
Sparkles of fun, gems of wit seemed to float upon 
the brim of his glass, and every time he sipped them 
down they rose to his lips again in a shape to make 
his friends heads ache with laughing, and hearts with 
envy. 

After the bride-to-be had been respectfully toasted, 
and the bridegroom had made a handsome reply, a 
thin youth with very light hair and eyes, and a kind 
of sarcastic curl-downwards of the mouth, sprang 
upon the table 

" My friends," said he, " I want you all to do full 
justice to the occasion, as well as to the liquids for 
which the Club is famous, by getting as gloriously 
drunk as possible. Let us not have any of your 
half-way celebrations. The rules which were laid 
down by &lt; Festus at his festival, will do for every 
such occasion as this and that reminds me that I 
am going to have them painted in letters of gold 
and hung up in the arch yonder. But, as I was 
saying, the lady might be offended if it should ever 
reach her ears, that her lord saw fit to get only 
partially drunk in honor of so important an event. 
To make a sublime fool and a beautiful beast of one s 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 107 

self, seems the only rational and popular way of 
showing one s joy when something particularly good 
has happened or intends to happen. What would 
the Fourth of July be if the men it made free, did 
not see fit to commemorate it by getting gloriously 
drunk ? When a friend is elected to office, how can 
we show our sympathy but by getting gloriously 
drunk ? or elect a President or welcome a new 
member to the Club or bid farewell to one or have 
a fortune left to us or one taken away without 
getting gloriously drunk? And what way so appro 
priate to show our respect for the young maiden who 
is our toast, as to get drunk in testifying our esteem ? 
And, by the way, why should the ladies be debarred 
the privilege ? I presume that it would be peculiarly 
gratifying to our fortunate and admired friend here, 
who for the last time graces our Bachelor Club with 
his inspiring presence, if he could learn that his 
beautiful Blanche was celebrating his expected coin 
ing in a similar manner with a few of her female 
friends. It would be a preparation eminently be 
coming before entering upon the high and holy state 

of " 

" Down with him !" cried two or three, interrupt 
ing the speaker, who was saying all this in a sneering 
tone, but with a smiling face, " his sentiments, if 


108 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

not his words, are opposed to the spirit of our insti 
tutions. Barclay Brown, you are forbidden to open 
your mouth again this night, except for the purpose 
of emptying therein such waste liquids as might 
otherwise &lt; die undrank. " 

Brown came down from among the bottles with a 
grimace, and remarking that it was easier to " Preach 
than practice," began pouring out a glass of amber- 
colored, aromatic sherry. 

Frederick s soul was not so steeped in the pleasant 
wine-fumes but that he was conscious of its being 
jarred by the last part of the address; the idea 
struck him that the pure, delicate, and lily-like crea 
ture he so adored, would not be pleased to look in 
upon him then, and he wished the hour for him to 
withdraw from the room had arrived. Such impres 
sions, however, quickly vanished, and did not recur 
until the party broke up, and he found himself walk 
ing home in the pure morning air, the stars looking 
down pale and reproachful, and Aurora blushing as 
if with shame. 

" I will never be guilty of joining a married-men s 
Club, now that I am honorably free from this," he 
murmured, " such kind of pleasure is of a false and 
hollow kind, and I wonder so many of us young men 
are led into such extremes, until we make a dissipa- 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 109 

tion of our enjoyments. Dear Blanche ! you must 
forgive me this, and your name shall never be writ in 
rosy wine by me again." 

It may be that the head ache he had, and the 
weary feeling of satiety may have assisted him to 
this good resolution ; and just as he finished his 
appeal to his absent lady love, his eyes being fixed 
upon the space her fancied image filled, he stumbled 
over an obstruction in the path and fell full length 
in the dust, which being damp, with dew, clung to 
his clothes, and gave him the appearance of being in 
a worse condition than he really was ; but it aided in 
strengthening his dislike to night-revels, and was 
therefore a lucky accident. 

After a few hours of feverish sleep he breakfasted, 
and after completing all his preparations, and sending 
Jupiter to the depot with his baggage, he went to 
bid Rosa good bye. 

She knew where he had been the previous night, 
and begged .of him eagerly, earnestly, passionately, 
to tell her how Lennard conducted himself, and if 
the change which she detected in him, was observa 
ble in society. Her large eyes were fixed so search- 
ingly upon his face, that he could not evade the 
truth; he confessed that Lennard seemed like a 
10 


110 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

different man was vacillating, irritable, capricious, 
and even dissipated. 

" Oh !" said the beautiful sufferer, closing her eyes 
with a deep sigh, and covering them with one wan 
hand as if to shut out thought with light, " how 
gladly, how swiftly would I die, rather than that he 
should so change." 

The tears stood in her brother s eyes as he tried to 
comfort her, and she soon rallied and with a patient 
smile sent her love, her warmest wishes to Blanche, 
and bidding him to return with her as quickly as cir 
cumstances would permit, she gave him the parting 
kiss, and was left to the loneliness, the sadness, the 
gloom of her sick chamber and her vanished hopes, 
while Frederick went forth, elate, happy, fearless, to 
realize his most eager and triumphant wishes. 

And how lonely, how gloomy, that chamber seemed 
to Rosa for the next few hours, none but those who 
have passed through such dark places in life, can 
imagine. The sense of what she had suffered and 
what she must still suffer of what she had given up 
and had yet to resign of the fearful shadow which 
came all at once between her and sunlight of the 
dreams she had, dreams, rose-colored and fair, con 
trasted with this dreadful reality came even with 
wilder power than ever before, opposed by the happy 


FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. Ill 

prospects of Frederick and Blanche till her trial 
seemed too great to bear, and she prayed for death. 
As the morning rolled slowly on, the intensity of her 
agony exhausted itself, she grew too weak to feel so 
madly ; and Margaret coming in, after her brother 
had left, found her so faint and pale that she was al 
armed and would have summoned her father. 

" No no ! Maggie, it is mental pain I have been 
suffering ; otherwise I am as well as usual, Do not 
tell any one that I have been so foolish, but think 
ing of Frederick and Blanche and all oh, Maggie, 
I have had a struggle. But it is over past the worst 
is past!" and after uttering other words in a weak 
voice, Rosa tried to assume a cheerful look. 

" Lennard has sent Miss Barrett s Poems for me 
to read to you this morning," replied Margaret, turn 
ing away for a moment to conceal the sob which 
shook her at hearing her sister s touching whisper ; 
" but you are too weary, now. What shall I do for 
you ? 

"You may give me my cordial, Maggie, and hand 
me those April violets Lily left, and then you may 
read. It will not tire me ; perhaps I shall sleep." 

Margaret sat where she could sometimes bend for 
ward acd kiss the sick girl s forehead, while she read 
the " Lady Geraldine," in a sweet and soothing 


112 FASHIONABLE DISSIPATION. 

x 

tone, so full of the love and tenderness which she 
felt, that the beautiful poem sounded still more ex 
quisite from her lips. Listening to her the invalid 
dropped into a refreshing slumber, the tears yet 
standing upon her pale cheeks like dew upon white 
roses. 

And thus Margaret left her, to attend to other 
duties which demanded her attention ; for the young 
girl had daily more cares, and passed her life in a 
steady round of employments, and in adding to the 
happiness of those about her. Even Towser, when 
he had wounded his foot, knew to whom to apply to 
get it bound up, and came limping to our lovely 
house-keeper with a mute appeal in his eyes, as she 
came down stairs. 


CHAPTER VII. 

Charles Leonard had parted from Rosa. He was 

going to be absent from C for a year on business. 

He had heretofore lived easily and with no thought 
about providing for himself j as he was the adopted 
son and heir of a wealthy uncle ; but this uncle be 
gan to dread the habits which his nephew was form 
ing, and had offered him all the money that was to be 
made by it if he would go and attend to some affairs 
for him in a distant city. He thought that n-ew oc 
cupations and associations would drive out of his 
mind the memory of his disappointment, and leave 
him more at liberty to make another choice ; for Mr. 
Lennard, senior, was not a sentimental man, and 
although he had formerly been highly pleased with 
the idea of Rosa Lee for a niece ;