When Miss Lawrence's mother, a nervous invalid, was informed of her
daughter's engagement, she burst into tears, as over a lamb offered
on the altar of sacrifice; and Judge Lawrence pressed a kiss on the
lobe of Mabel's left ear which she offered him, and told her she had
won a prize in the market. But as he sat alone over his cigar that
night, he sighed heavily, and said to himself, "Poor fellow, I wish
Mabel were not so much like her mother."



CHAPTER II



"Baroness Brown" was a distinctive figure in Beryngford. She came to
the place from foreign parts some three years before the arrival of
Preston Cheney, and brought servants, carriages and horses, and
established herself in a very handsome house which she rented for a
term of years. Her arrival in this quiet village town was of course
the sensation of the hour, or rather of the year. She was known as
Baroness Le Fevre--an American widow of a French baron. Large,
voluptuous, blonde, and handsome according to the popular idea of
beauty, distinctly amiable, affable and very charitable, she became
at once the fashion.

Invitations to her house were eagerly sought after, and her
entertainments were described in column articles by the press.

This state of things continued only six months, however. Then it