CHAPTER VII.
THE GIRL’S FIRST GRIEF.
One hurried kiss, one last, one long embrace,
One yearning look upon her tearful face,
And he was gone—C. H. W. Esling.
At ten years of age little Drusilla met her first great grief; and very heavy it was, for it nearly crushed out her life.
Mr. Alexander being twenty-two years of age, and having completed his college course, graduated with some honors, and returned home to spend a week or two of the beautiful spring weather with his parents previous to starting on his travels.
The family had not yet left the town house in Richmond, where General Lyon and Miss Anna, now a blooming young lady of sixteen, came to visit them.
During this visit it was arranged that Mr. Alexander should travel for two years and then return and marry Miss Anna, and that the young couple should take up their permanent abode at Old Lyon Hall.
But in all the interest and excitement of arranging his own and his promised bride’s affairs, Alexander did not neglect Drusilla. He had come into a little property of his own, left him by a bachelor brother of his mother; and so before he went away he said to the old lady:
“Mother, little Drusilla is going on eleven years old and ought to be sent to school. And I wish you, if you please, to look out a good one for her, the best that can be found, and send her. I wish you to do this for me at my expense. My money is in the City Bank, and I will leave you a number of blank checks, to fill up as you may require them. Will you attend to this for me, mother?”