“I will go back as far as my boyhood,” Colonel Mapleson resumed. “You have heard me say, Estelle, that I was in the habit of visiting Vue de l’Eau, often spending weeks and sometimes months with Uncle Jabez when I was a boy. I think I could not have been more than twelve, when, during one of those visits, I became acquainted with a young girl just about my own age, who resided near here with her mother. I refer to Annie Dale.” Mrs. Mapleson gave a violent start at this; a light broke over her face, which instantly became crimson, then grew as suddenly white. “We became very fond of each other,” her husband proceeded, without noticing her emotion, “and we were together day after day, week after week, playing ball, hoop, battledore and shuttlecock, sailing our boats together on the stream which feeds the pond that used to run the old mill, riding horseback together—in fact, were scarcely separated from the beginning of my stay until its end. It was always the same every time I came; I always sought my charming little companion on the day of my arrival, and gave her my last good-by when I went away. “This went on for several years, until I grew to love her with all the strength of my young heart, and I fondly believed she returned my affections, although she was so modest and shy that she never betrayed it, at least after she grew to womanhood, save by evincing pleasure and a sort of trustful content in my society. “There came a time when I resolved to confess my feelings toward her and learn if possible if she returned them, but before the time for my visit arrived that year, Uncle Jabez died and everything was changed. This uncle,” said Colonel Mapleson, glancing from Mr. Huntress to Geoffrey, “made a very singular will—a very _arbitrary and unnatural will_. He divided the whole of his property, which was very large, into two portions, one of which he bequeathed to me, the other to his niece, Miss Estelle Everet, who is now my wife—upon the condition that we would marry each other. He gave us until Miss Everet would be twenty-five to make up our minds; if we both refused to comply with his wishes at the end of that time, and each married some one else, the whole fortune was to go to a certain Robert Dale, who was first cousin to our uncle. If either of us died during that time, such an event would free the other party and he or she would inherit the fortune thus left; if either married during that time the same result was to follow. I was at that time in my twenty-first year, Miss Everet was seventeen.