“Why, mamma, can the young lady you have been speaking about be yourself?”
“Yes, my daughter, it is the same.”
Nettie was standing by her mother’s chair, stroking the fair brow of her only parent, deeply thinking over all she had been told.
Soon she said, “Mamma, it was very sad indeed, but I do not see why it should be a warning to me.”
CHAPTER VI.
“My child,” answered the mother sorrowfully, “you will be surprised when I state that the young man did go home and did not try to find where we removed to, but soon became acquainted with a lady of high standing and married her. They came over here, bought a large tract of land somewhere in the New England states. Your father and I met him once on board a vessel lying in harbor. Your papa, dear soul, knew of my first love and also the name of his predecessor, and getting an introduction to him made himself very inquisitive, as he found he was the same person and had been married some twelve years. You see how deceitful some people are in this world. It is a good saying and a true one, too, that ‘sometimes you think a friend you’ve got until trial proves you have him not.’ Thus it proved out to be to me.”
“Mamma,” answered Nettie, “I am a trusting spirit. It might not have been all his fault. He might have been deceived, as the story circulated by the family deceived you. Perhaps he did try to find you but could not get any clue to your whereabouts, as money sometimes will do a great deal in the way of bribing people.”
“Well. Nettie, time will prove all things. As it is said, ‘Right conquers might.’”
“Mamma, what is the name of the once young man you have been speaking of?”