From an independent, self-reliant, energetic girl of twenty-two, Julia had ripened into a noble and dignified woman of twenty-seven, with a repose of manner which seemed to rest and quiet one, and which told insensibly on Guy, until at last he found himself dreading to have her go, and wishing to keep her with him always. The visit was lengthened into a month; and when in November he went with her to Boston, he had asked her to take Daisy’s place, and be his second wife. Very freely they talked of the little golden-haired girl, and Julia told him what she had heard through a mutual acquaintance who had been on the same vessel with the McDonalds when they returned from South America. Cousin Tom was with them, a rich man then, and a richer now, for his gold mine and his railroad had made him almost a millionaire, and it was currently reported and believed that Mr. McDonald meant him to marry his daughter. They were abroad now, the McDonalds and Tom, and Daisy, it was said, was even more beautiful than in her early girlhood, and that to her natural loveliness was added great cultivation and refinement of manner. She had had the best of teachers while in South America, and was now continuing her studies abroad with a view to further improvement. All this Julia Hamilton told Guy, and then bade him think again before deciding to join his life with hers. And Guy did think again, and his thoughts went across the sea after the beautiful Daisy, and he tried to picture to himself what she must be now that education and culture had set their seal upon her. But always in the picture there was a dark background, where cousin Tom stood sentinel with his bags of gold, and so, with a half unconscious sigh for what "might have been," Guy dug still deeper the grave where, years before, he had buried his love for Daisy, and to make the burial sure this time, so that there should be no future resurrection, he put over the grave a head-stone, on which was written a new hope and a new love, both of which centered in Julia Hamilton. And so they were engaged, and after that there was no wavering on his part,—no looking back to a past, which seemed like a happy dream, from which there had been a horrible awaking.