The great content of his new happiness disposed Vaughn to be more indulgent
than even his wont to the wishes of his only child, and although he could
not approve or sympathize in her choice, he would not absolutely refuse consent
to it. He did not, however, refrain from expressing to Mr. Chilton his views
with regard to some passages in that young man's life, and informing him most
distinctly that his engagement to Francia must be a conditional one, to be broken
at any time when her friends considered him to have failed in keeping the good
resolutions that he now professed.

Chilton, quite seriously in love, and rather proud of bearing away the beauty
of the season, as Francia had been styled, found himself very willing to subscribe
to even harder conditions than these; and immediately removed his lodgings
from a hotel to a quiet boarding-house; reduced his allowance of cigars to
three per diem; confined himself in his convivialities to light wines; turned the
cold shoulder to several of his former intimates; spent nearly an hour every day
in the law-office, whose door-plate bore his name in conjunction with that of a
partner who did all the work and assumed nearly all the profit of the concern;
and, in brief, resolved, as he himself expressed the determination, to “try the
Falstaffian lodge, `eschew sack, and live cleanly.' ”

Neria's consternation and regret upon first hearing of Francia's engagement
were extreme Her pure and true instincts had always negatived any feeling of
admiration for Mr. Chilton's appearance or manners, and her sympathy with
Fergus caused her painfully to appreciate the severe disappointment and sorrow
underlying his silent displeasure. She, however, said but little upon the subject,
especially to Francia, whom she treated with an added tenderness and
delicacy, sufficiently expressed by Francia's playful wish, that she were a little
girl instead of a great one, that she might call Neria mother.

Claudia was content with both engagements. Mr. Chilton was a man of
wealth and fashion, and would, of course, immediately renounce the open offences
against morality which had somewhat disturbed society in its wish to render
him its highest consideration. As for the rest, Mrs. Livingstone's standard of
life was not very high, and she held the tenet that every young man was either a
sinner or a hypocrite.

Mr. Murray took snuff, and blandly congratulated Vaughn upon his own and
his daughter's engagement.

[figure description] Page 086.[end figure description]

Fergus almost deserted his sister's house, and professed himself absorbed
in business.

It was arranged that Neria's quiet marriage should take place as soon as its
preliminaries could be arranged, and that until then she and Francia should remain
with Claudia, while Vaughn vacillated between the city and Bonniemeer,
where he was pleasing his luxurious taste by some alterations and new furnishings
in honor of the bride who was to be.

It was on a joyous April day that he finally brought her home, and, before
entering the house, lingered a moment upon the terrace with her, to admire the
capricious beauty of the landscape, where all earth seemed frolicking in her
girlish glee, and afar upon the horizon line the bright blue ocean tossed its glittering
foam against the bright blue sky.

Vaughn drew Neria close to his side.

“My wife,” whispered he, “tell me that you are happy.”

“O, so happy!” said Neria, brightly. “Such a heavenly day, and coming
home to our own dear Bonniemeer, are enough for happiness.”

“But to be with you in any weather, and at any place, is enough for happiness
to me,” urged the bridegroom, in a tone of half-playful reproach.

Neria looked at him a little wonderingly, and then raised her face heavenward
with a smile of serene satisfaction; but whether evoked by his words or the
joyous scene, Vaughn did not dare inquire.

“Come, spirit,” said he, leading her toward the house, “I am afraid to let
you stay here, lest you suddenly float away and leave me desolate. I will close
you within walls, and only allow you to see the sky through non-conducting
glass, until you are a little naturalized by sympathy with me. I anticipate that
in course of time our natures will become equalized, to a certain extent, at least.
You are to elevate and purify me, and I am to strengthen and practicalize you. So
shall we both fill more perfectly our places in this world, and in each other's hearts.

Neria regarded him with a dreamy smile, and softly said,

“I cannot tell. It is all so new and strange to me as yet, but I am sure that
you will be to me what you have always been.”

“O no, dear child, but more and better,” said Vaughn, eagerly. “Do you
not feel the change that love has wrought in our relations to each other?”

“But I have always loved and reverenced you,” returned Neria, with the
pathetic intonation peculiar to her voice when she found herself perplexed or
troubled.

Vaughn smiled a little dubiously, and led her into the house.

“See, now, my ocean waif, the bower I have been building for you,” said
he, leading the way through a richly-furnished bridal chamber and dressing-room,
to the entrance of one of the apartments recently added to the house.

“Here is a boudoir, where you may, if you choose, fancy yourself still beneath
the sea.”

He threw open the door and Neria, standing upon the threshold, uttered a
little cry of delight.

The arched ceiling, divided into four compartments by heavy mullions, represented
in fresco, Venus rising from the sea, surrounded by rosy little Loves;
Arion riding his dolphin, and drawing all the creatures of the deep to listen to
his wonderful melodies; the nymph Tyro yielding half coy, half willing to the
wooing of Neptune, who drew her toward his wave-borne chariot; and last, an
exquisite design showing a fair child asleep in a great sea-shell floating upon a
smiling sea, and rocked by the tiny hands of Nereids, whose sweet faces and

[figure description] Page 087.[end figure description]

shining hair floated above the waves, while their gleaming shapes showed fairly
through the pure water.

From the cornice fell heavy folds of sea-green silk, draping the walls and
lying upon a carpet of white velvet, embossed with groups of sea mosses and
grasses, with sprigs of coral interspersed. Upon the mantle shelf, itself upheld
by sculptured Tritons, lay two-great sea-shells with flowers and trailing vines
drooping over their rose-red lips, and between them an exquisite marble group,
showing Andromeda chained half-lifeless to the rock, closing her eyes to shut
out the sea monster, while Perseus stole to her side, and looked with admiring
wonder upon her rare beauty.

Two or three paintings, gems of ocean scenery, hung upon the walls, and
on the étagére lay some rare mosaics, cameos, shells, and sea pebbles. A little
book-rack was filled with the poets Neria loved, the volumes bound in silk of
the same tint as the hangings of the room. The furniture was of ebony inlaid
with mother-of-pearl, the chairs and couches luxuriously cushioned with silk of
the prevailing tint. A wide bay window let in a flood of morning sunshine,
and commanded a wide view of the distant sea.

“Do you like it?” asked Vaughn, who had watched, with loving delight, the
varying expression of Neria's face as she silently made the tour of the little
chamber, gathering in all its beauty with her swift and comprehensive glances. As
he spoke she came toward him and raised her lips to his with innocent grace.

“How can I ever do anything for you who are always doing so much for
me?” asked she.

“Do anything for me, darling? By simply being, you do everything. My
white angel, my pure saint, do you not know that it is by thus putting the
smallest portion of my love into deeds, that I relieve my heart of this burden
of joy which almost cleaves it in twain! Neria, you do not know, you do not
faintly guess how much I love you. And you—ah, my love, my darling, be a
little human—blush when I kiss your lips thus and thus; droop those pure eyes
before the passion of my gaze; let those calm pulses beat, and pause, and beat
again, as mine do when I clasp you in my arms. Neria, love me as I love
you!”

And Neria, pale, passive, disturbed, answered in her plaintive voice,

“I do love you, Sieur—I love you very much.”

Vaughn impatiently opened his lips, but left the words unsaid. Taking the
slender hands of his girl-wife in one of his, he looked down into her troubled
face for a moment, then smiled a little sadly, and tenderly smoothed her hair.

“You are tired, dear child,” said he; “come into your chamber and rest a
little. I will send up your trunks, and Mrs. Barlow, the housekeeper, to help you
with your toilet.”

Neria mutely obeyed, but when she was left alone could not rest for wondering
why the love that had always seemed good and sufficient in Vaughn's eyes,
had suddenly grown so inadequate to satisfy him.

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