82 BERTHA. 



loved him with a sister's love, but there was none of the maid- 

 enly reserve which would have betrayed a deeper feeling. 



At eighteen Bertha was a beauty and a belle. Gay, care- 

 less and thoughtless as ever, she found only amusement in 

 society, and still 'fancy-free' she fiutter'd amid life's flowers 

 like a butterfly which could scare bear even the touch of ten- 

 derness without losing some of its bright plumage. But the 

 time came when suitors pressed around her, and when officious 

 friends began to assure her of the absolute necessity of decid- 

 ing her future position in life. One of the axioms of those who 

 influenced her opinions was that a woman's destiny could only 

 be accomplished by marriage ; and that therefore she must 

 make a choice, even if she still pined for something beyond 

 what was within her reach. Bertha had heard these things so 

 often, that she unconsciously imbibed them as truths, and al- 

 though quite content with her free and unfettered condition, 

 she began to think that she must marry from the fear of a 

 lonely and useless future. 



Among her many admirers was a man some twenty years 

 her senior, whose great wealth, and undoubted respectability 

 won the immediate suffrages of all Bertha's prudential friends. 

 Mr. Aulen Van Aulen, (he was very proud of his name,) was 

 the descendant of an old Dutch family, and along with the fine 

 estate which he derived from his grandfather he inherited no 

 small portion of the phlegmatic temper of his ancestors. 

 There was nothing remarkable about him. He looked young- 

 er than he really was, because there had been no wear and 



