CHAPTER I.
Far from the mad’ning crowds ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learned to stray,
Along the cool sequestered vale of life
They kept the even tenor of their way.
Gray’s Elegy.
About thirty miles from Savannah, on the banks of the river of that name, is a pretty little village, which, with its small white houses nestled away in the thick green woods, is something like a hail-stone which has fallen in a cluster of green leaves. Scarce a quarter of a mile from the village is the modest residence of Mrs. Delmont, which is in itself a little paradise of beauty. Shaded by the stately sycamore, the magnolia, with its deep green leaves, the catalpa, with its silver blossoms, and the luxuriant orange-tree, it stands unrivaled for the romance of its situation for miles around; while the cape-jessamine, the japonica, the oleander, and many other rare and beautiful flowers lend their radiant hues to ornament the latticed piazza, which is covered over with the fragrant honeysuckle, together with jessamines of every hue. In this beautiful and peaceful retreat Mrs. Delmont had resided since the death of her husband, which had taken place when her children, of whom she had three, were very young.
William, her only son, was a sunny faced boy of eight years old. Rosa, two years older, had the blue eyes and golden hair of her mother; while Clara had her father’s dark eyes and shining hair, which clustered in dark brown ringlets around her fair face.
Clara had just completed her eighteenth year, and was a tall, graceful and beautiful girl; she had been carefully trained by her affectionate mother, and well did she repay that mother’s anxious care, for in her bereavement she was her comforter and assistant in many things, and in nothing more than in undertaking the education of her little brother and sister, a useful, although we cannot agree with the poet in styling it a “delightful task,” yet one that Clara was well qualified to perform, as she had herself received a finished education, although she had never left her native village: and she was thus occupied one morning, when Mrs. Delmont entered the room with an open letter in her hand, and addressed our heroine in the following manner:
“My dear Clara, your cousin Mrs. Cleveland writes that she, with Mr. Cleveland and their three children, will be here next Wednesday evening, to spend a fortnight with us, after which they wish you to accompany them to their city residence, and remain there for this winter.”