be best, I began to distrust him from that moment--to think that he
preferred money to myself. Uncle Bertram promised secrecy and went
back alone, and then commenced a life of wretchedness, which makes me
shudder even to recall it. With the exception of my own servant, who
dared not tell if I bade her be silent, the blacks knew nothing of our
marriage, and though we lived together as man and wife, so skillfully
did Mrs. Le Vert and Esther, her white domestic, manage the matter,
that for a time our secret was safely kept. A few of the negroes
discovered it ere I left, but as they always lived in that out-of-the-
way place, it never followed me, and to this day no human being in
Florida, save Uncle Bertram knows of the marriage.

"I am very impulsive, and the excitement being over, my affection
began to cool. Richard could have kept it alive had he tried, but he
did not. On the contrary he was much alone, and when with me was
always tormenting me with conscientious scruples about deceiving 'the
old man.'"

"Oh, I like him for that," cried Rosamond, "I like him for that. Why
didn't you let him tell?"

"Because," returned Miss Porter, "I had fears that father would
disinherit _me_, and if Richard lost Sunnyside we should be poor
indeed."

A shadow passed over Rosamond's face, and she said involuntarily, "I
could be happy with Mr. Browning if we _were_ poor."

Marie started and answered quickly, "What has _Mr. Browning_ to do
with my story?"