An Original Belle | Page 2

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 face, her violet eyes, so dark as to appear almost black at night, had given no token that she could amuse herself with feelings that touched the sources of life and death in such admirers.
"They should have known better, that I was not in earnest," she would say, petulantly, and more or less remorsefully.
But these sincere men, who had been so blind as to credit her with gentle truth and natural intuition, had some ideal of womanhood which had led to their blunder. Conscious of revealing so much themselves by look, tone, and touch of hand, eager to supplement one significant glance by life-long loyalty, they were slow in understanding that answering significant glances meant only, "I like you very well,--better than others, just at present; but then I may meet some one to-morrow who is a great deal more fun than you are."
Fun! With them it