An Original Belle | Page 2

anything like a detailed
and complete account of events. The scenes and incidents described,
however, had their counterpart in fact. Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby of New
York saw a young man face and disperse a mob of hundreds, by
stepping out upon the porch of his home and shooting the leader. This
event took place late at night.
I have consulted "Sketches of the Draft Riots in 1863," by Hon. J. T.
Headley, the files of the Press of that time, and other records.
The Hon. Thomas C. Acton. Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police

during the riot, accorded me a hearing, and very kindly followed the
thread of my story through the stormy period in question.
E. P. R
CORNWALL-ON-HUDSON, N.Y., AUG. 7, 1885.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I
. A RUDE AWAKENING
CHAPTER II
. A NEW ACQUAINTANCE
CHAPTER III
. A NEW FRIEND
CHAPTER IV
. WOMAN'S CHIEF RIGHT
CHAPTER V
. "BE HOPEFUL, THAT I MAY HOPE"
CHAPTER VI
. A SCHEME OF LIFE
CHAPTER VII
. SURPRISES
CHAPTER VIII
. CHARMED BY A CRITIC
CHAPTER IX
. A GIRL'S LIGHT HAND
CHAPTER X
. WILLARD MERWYN
CHAPTER XI
. AN OATH AND A GLANCE
CHAPTER XII
. "A VOW"
CHAPTER XIII
. A SIEGE BEGUN

CHAPTER XIV
. OMINOUS
CHAPTER XV
. SCORN
CHAPTER XVI
. AWAKENED AT LAST
CHAPTER XVII
. COMING TO THE POINT
CHAPTER XVIII
. A GIRL'S STANDARD
CHAPTER XIX
. PROBATION PROMISED
CHAPTER XX
. "YOU THINK ME A COWARD"
CHAPTER XXI
. FEARS AND PERPLEXITIES
CHAPTER XXII
. A GIRL'S THOUGHTS AND IMPULSES
CHAPTER XXIII
. "MY FRIENDSHIP IS MINE TO GIVE"
CHAPTER XXIV
. A FATHER'S FORETHOUGHT
CHAPTER XXV
. A CHAINED WILL
CHAPTER XXVI
. MARIAN'S INTERPRETATION OF MERWYN
CHAPTER XXVII
. "DE HEAD LINKUM MAN WAS CAP'N LANE"
CHAPTER XXVIII
. THE SIGNAL LIGHT
CHAPTER XXIX
. MARIAN CONTRASTS LANE AND MERWYN
CHAPTER XXX
THE NORTH INVADED

CHAPTER XXXI
. "I'VE LOST MY CHANCE"
CHAPTER XXXII
. BLAUVELT
CHAPTER XXXIII
. A GLIMPSE OF WAR
CHAPTER XXXIV
. A GLIMPSE OF WAR, CONTINUED
CHAPTER XXXV
. THE GRAND ASSAULT
CHAPTER XXXVI
. BLAUVELT'S SEARCH FOR STRAHAN
CHAPTER XXXVII
. STRAHAN'S ESCAPE
CHAPTER XXXVIII
. A LITTLE REBEL
CHAPTER XXXIX
. THE CURE OF CAPTAIN LANE
CHAPTER XL
. LOVE'S TRIUMPH
CHAPTER XLI
. SUNDAY'S LULL AND MONDAY'S STORM
CHAPTER XLII
. THAT WORST OF MONSTERS, A MOB
CHAPTER XLIII
. THE "COWARD"
CHAPTER XLIV
. A WIFE'S EMBRACE
CHAPTER XLV
. THE DECISIVE BATTLE
CHAPTER XLVI
. "I HAVE SEEN THAT YOU DETEST ME"
CHAPTER XLVII
. A FAIR FRIEND AND FOUL FOES

CHAPTER XLVIII
. DESPERATE FIGHTING
CHAPTER XLIX
. ONE FACING HUNDREDS
CHAPTER L
. ZEB
CHAPTER LI
. A TRAGEDY
CHAPTER LII
. "MOTHER AND SON"
CHAPTER LIII
. "MISSY S'WANEE"

AN ORIGINAL BELLE.

CHAPTER I
.
A RUDE AWAKENING.

MARIAN VOSBURGH had been content with her recognized position
as a leading belle. An evening spent in her drawing-room revealed that;
but at the close of the particular evening which it was our privilege to
select there occurred a trivial incident. She was led to think, and
thought is the precursor of action and change in all natures too strong
and positive to drift. On that night she was an ordinary belle, smiling,
radiant, and happy in following the traditions of her past.
She had been admired as a child, as a school-girl, and given a place
among the stars of the first magnitude since her formal debut.
Admiration was as essential as sunshine; or, to change the figure, she
had a large and a natural and healthful appetite for it. She was also
quite as much entitled to it as the majority of her class. Thus far she had
accepted life as she found it, and was in the main conventional. She
was not a deliberate coquette; it was not her recognized purpose to give
a heartache to as many as possible; she merely enjoyed in thoughtless
exultation her power to attract young men to her side. There was keen
excitement in watching them, from the moment of introduction, as they
passed through the phases of formal acquaintanceship into relations

that bordered on sentiment. When this point was reached experiences
sometimes followed which caused not a little compunction.
She soon learned that society was full of men much like herself in some
respects, ready to meet new faces, to use their old compliments and
flirtation methods over and over again. They could look unutterable
things at half a dozen different girls in the same season, while their
hearts remained as invulnerable as old-fashioned pin-cushions,
heart-shaped, that adorn country "spare rooms." But now and then a
man endowed with a deep, strong nature would finally leave her side in
troubled wonder or bitter cynicism. Her fair, young