Rosamond was interested now, and forgetting to remove her dress, she
threw a crimson shawl around her shoulders, and sitting down upon the
bed, exclaimed, "Married! You married! Why, then, are you called
Porter?"

"Listen and you shall know," returned the lady, a dark look settling
down upon her face.

"Scarcely was the ceremony over, when I began to regret it--not
because I disliked Richard, but because I dreaded my father's
displeasure, for he had a most savage, revengeful temper, and his
daughter possesses the same." This was bitterly spoken, and she
continued--"Hardly an hour after we were married, a negro brought a
letter to Richard from an eccentric old man for whom he had been
named. In it the old man said he had made his namesake his heir,
provided he did not marry until he was _twenty-five_.

"'I know just how _frillickin'_ you are,' he wrote, 'and I know, too,
how unsuitable and how unhappy most early marriages are--so my boy, if
you want Sunnyside, wait till you are twenty-five before you take an
extra rib. I hate to be bothered with letters, and if you don't answer
this, I shall conclude that you accept my terms.'"

"Mrs. Le Vert at once suggested that, as the old gentleman had already
had two fits of apoplexy, and would undoubtedly soon have the third,
our marriage should for a time be kept a secret.

"But he didn't consent," cried Rosamond.

"Yes, he did," answered Miss Porter, "and though I, too, said it would