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fulfilment of the agreement between the late Mr. Blauvelt and himself relative to Seaforth being interested in the house. Be that as it may, his subsequent conduct forced Seaforth to leave the establishment: not, however, until it had hastened an event, to avoid which he would have forfeited his possessions.

Unknown to her father, Julia Morton had long been attached to Seaforth, and of course their sentiments were mutual. A mere casual acquaintance soon ripened into intimacy of a warmer nature between the pair; and as Mr. Morton's vindictive behavior toward Ferdinand became worse and worse, the more the sweet girl sympathized with and encouraged her lover. In truth, he had no one else now to advise or comfort him, as his aunt Blauvelt had departed on a protracted visit to her native clime, the valleys of sunny France.

Seaforth was an orphan, without any friends in the city, and had been adopted by Mr. Blauvelt somewhat contrary to his wife's wishes. His mild and gentlemanly deportment, and close attention to business, and his universal reputation for probity and worth, had so won upon his uncle, as to determine him, when his protegé reached manhood, to place him as a partner in the firm.

The marriage of the two was often the subject of their discourse, but it was deferred, for obvious reasons, until a brighter future presented itself.

Although Mr. Morton's whole soul was wrapped up in the accumulation of wealth, yet he loved his daughter,

and probably the more so, as she was his all. He lavished money in decorating and dressing her, often against her will, in order that she should outvie in appearance all her large circle of acquaintance. But nature had done more to adorn than art or wealth could accomplish. Pride had a great deal to do with the course her father pursued. He had long made up his mind that naught but a millionaire should aspire to his daughter's hand; whether the heart went with it, he cared not: enough for him that he could amass the glittering gold.

Mrs. Morton repeatedly expostulated with her husband on the absurdity as well as folly of sacrificing her daughter's happiness at the shrine of mammon, and the more so, as he was in possession of a vast fortune himself. In so doing, she had invariably to encounter a whirlwind of passion; but the welfare of her child was paramount in her affections, and she heeded not the storm. Julia well knew her father's stern mandate, and dared not, as yet, think of marriage with him who had won her heart.

Unfortunately for Morton's determined resolve, he one day met Seaforth leaving his mansion as he was about entering it; and giving way to his rage, he rudely seized him by the collar, exclaiming," What seek you here? Is it to make love to the scullions or the cook? I'd have you know I permit no baseborn beggar to associate with my family!"

"Release me," demanded Seaforth, "or I shall do you harm!" and his upraised arm was about to descend

upon his insulter, when a third party appeared: it was Julia herself, who had witnessed with great sorrow the conduct of her parent. Seaforth, regretting that he had taken any notice of this rude treatment, disengaged himself from Morton's grasp, and merely said, "You have now very effectually stamped the seal of disgrace upon one who has never done you wrong: we part for ever!" and, bowing respectfully, he departed.

"Leave me, rascal! villain!" shouted the still enraged father; and, pushing his daughter roughly aside, he entered the dwelling in a fit of fury.

The following day, Seaforth received a note from Mrs. Morton, requesting him to call that evening. Upon the "wings of love" he flew, reckless of all the fathers in Christendom; and, upon arriving at the house, saw the good mother of his Julia. She told him that she knew all: that she had encouraged the intimacy existing between her daughter and himself; and that she had done so in anticipation of a favorable termination—alas! now a vain hope! —that, the evening previous, her husband had introduced a superannuated coxcomb, of foreign birth, reputedly wealthy, and forced the poor girl to bedeck herself like a gilded butterfly, insisting that she should receive his addresses, and, if he proposed, accept the wrinkled brow and the withered hand. "Under this state of things," she concluded, "we have come to the determination to cause your nuptials to be performed at once, and to await the worst. This evening, at the residence of a reverend

friend of ours, you must be united; and may the Supreme Being in his goodness bless the act!" The joy of Seaforth was without bounds-his only fear being that of compromising Julia. But it was useless to

"Stem the torrent of a woman's will" —

and that night Julia Morton became the wife of Ferdinand Seaforth.

The next day Mrs. Morton undertook the hazardous task of communicating the event to her liege-lord. Contrary to all expectation, he silently listened until she had ceased speaking, and then, calmly asking, "Is that all?” sent for his daughter. Fearing the dreadful effects of her father's wrath, she was scarcely able to totter into his presence, and a chair only prevented her from falling. "Stand up, madam! stand up, I say!" sternly exclaimed he; and she mechanically obeyed the mandate, while he continued: "As you have thought proper to pursue a course, for life, contrary to my express commands, and have disgraced me for ever, now hear your destiny! In one hour from this time," pulling out his watch, and laying it before him on the table, "you leave your home, never more to return: and if here one moment after that, I'll cause you and yours to be cast out of doors! Accursed minion! I disown you! Leave my sight for ever!-go and starve!" And the incensed parent turned livid with passion. But the poor girl heeded not the injunction : ere he had concluded, she had fallen senseless at his feet!

Some three years intervened, when Seaforth, forced by circumstances, concluded to leave the city. His chief reason for so doing, was the annoyance and persecution he indirectly encountered from his relentless father-in-law, in his business pursuits; making his life one continual path of thorns. Sometime before his marriage, he had enrolled himself among the great and rapidly-increasing brotherhood of Odd-Fellows-unknown to Morton, however, or probably the venom of his malice would have even reached the sacred precincts of a lodge-room. What little money he had was nearly exhausted; but he determined to try his fortune elsewhere than in the home of his adoption. He accordingly settled down in a remote but flourishing little village, far from the theatre of his late persecutions, with his family-for now a doting little daughter graced the domestic circle, and sweetly lisped the name of "father."

Viewed with a favorable light by all around him, his business steadily increased, and he made considerable acquisitions toward the attainment of a fortune. That fickle goddess, however, is not always enwreathed in smiles, nor does sunshine always light up the heaven of earthly life. A storm of sad adversity came on, and its heaviest fury fell on Seaforth. A devastating fire, at night, consumed his dwelling, and with it, all his earthly wealth. Himself and family were almost miraculously preserved from a fiery death, by the extraordinary efforts of the firemen,

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