We have said that Marion Vance was wilful, and a little incident will serve to prove our assertion. Upon reaching her destination on this eventful summer, the obstinate little marchioness elect had insisted upon being introduced into the society frequented by the Surrey family as plain Miss Vance, devoid of either title or any particularly alluring future prospects. “I shall be so much happier not to be hampered with all the forms and ceremonies that are so irksome at home, and which papa is so tenacious of,” said the little lady, as she persistently argued her point with the family. “But I am in doubt as to the propriety of such a proceeding for that very reason—your papa would not approve,” demurred Madam Surrey, disliking to refuse the bright girl’s request, yet fearing even more to offend the marquis. “Ah, _please_ let me be happy in my own way for a little while. At home I am my Lady This and my Lady That, until I hate the word, and long to get out of my straitjacket and enjoy a little freedom,” sighed the fair pleader, coaxingly. There was no resisting the insinuating tones, the sweet blue eyes, and the pretty, pouting mouth; so for eight short, happy weeks the child of the aristocratic Marquis of Wycliffe was simply Miss Marion Vance, and a merrier quintette than those five—Kate, Ida, Caroline, and Isabel, with Marion—made could not have been found elsewhere in all South Sussex County. The Honorable Andrew Surrey’s residence was a most charming one, overlooking the sea, and that year it was christened by the surrounding neighborhood “The Home of the Nymphs,” in honor of the charming beauties residing there. But dire calamity and sorrow were destined to overtake these beautiful and careless nymphs ere their summer holiday, begun with so much of happiness and promise, should end, and the memory of it was the means of saddening their whole after life. During one of their many excursions and picnics, Marion Vance made the acquaintance of a young man, who was introduced to her as Mr. George Sumner. He was about twenty-two years of age, not handsome, nor even fine-looking, but possessed of a singular fascination of manner that attracted her from the very first. He was introduced by a young man who was somewhat attentive to Miss Kate Surrey, and who had met him at the German University, where he was studying. He knew nothing of him, beyond that he always had plenty of money, and report said he was to fall heir to great possessions upon the death of some aged relative. He had been well received at the university, and it was supposed that he belonged to a highly respectable family, and he was consequently admitted into the best of society there. Marion Vance, with her fresh young heart, her susceptible nature and impulse, was not long in learning to love this fascinating stranger, which feeling Mr. Sumner appeared to reciprocate, and, before half of her visit had expired, he was secretly her declared lover.