"We endow
Those whom we love, in our fond, passionate blindness,
With power upon our souls too absolute
To be a mortal's trust."
Among the many admirers of Grace Blanche was Mr. Carleton, a man of middle age, and a Southerner by birth and education. His residence for the last ten years in different parts of the North had obliterated every trace of his southern breeding. An accomplished gentleman in the popular sense of the term, his shrewdness of wit and unaffected gallantry won his way to the most select circles, and few ladies could resist the peculiar charm of his conversation.
He had a soul, tender, refined and affectionate, and also strong animal passions which gained the ascendency when beyond the restraints which female society throw around him. His real character could not escape detection from such a practised student of human nature as Ernest Livingston, who felt a brother's interest in Miss Blanche, her wealth in addition to rare charms of mind and person being a source of temptation to others, and he volunteered many words of counsel and caution which were always accepted in the spirit in which they were given.
She was the youngest child of her father who doted upon her, and made her an heiress to most of his
