MYSTERY OF AMAGANSET. 337 



this happened a great while ago, so that the story is more 

 easily to be credited. 



" The daughter, Bessie Laton, was a beautiful child, and 

 grew up to be a very beautiful woman. Contrary to the 

 custom in those days, she was sent away to be educated, 

 and for three years, from her fifteenth to her eighteenth 

 year, she was in New York, at the house of a wealthy 

 uncle, who was to leave her all his property some day. 



" He might have done more for her by looking more 

 closely after her life then, for Bessie was no child even in 

 her childish years, but always had great freedom of will, 

 a strong determination, and more than her share of self- 

 reliance. With all this she had an abounding pride, which 

 had always stamped her character, and no one who knew 

 her well failed to see that she had ambition which would 

 rest at nothing short of the highest position in woman's 

 empire. She loved and was loved by all the village, but 

 she lived a secret life of dreams and hopes and self-prom- 

 ises, which her city life afterward helped her to encourage. 



" No one knew what she did in those three years, ex- 

 cept that her step grew stately, her air assumed the graces 

 of the accomplished lady, and after all she came home 

 — to her sea-shore home — a changed woman. The gay- 

 ety of her whole character seemed to be lost, and a sore 

 and terrible secret evidently preyed on her mind. 



" In this secret the whole village was interested ; old 

 wives wondered what ailed the child, and old men shook 

 their heads and said this was what comes of • eddicating 

 children.' And at last the secret was half told, and Bes- 

 sie's name was the by-word of the town. 



" To her mother alone she said, ' I am married, but I 

 can not tell you any more until he comes himself to take 

 me.' The shame and agony in which her life now burned 



Y 



