“‘To death!’ there is some love like the blessed vivifying sunshine, such as the colonel’s affection for you, Nellie; and some love like the destroying fire, such as Philip Helmstedt’s passion for Marguerite. And I do not know that she is one whit behind him in the infatuation,” replied her mother. One morning Mrs. Houston brought a new visitor to see the beautiful recluse of Helmstedt’s Island, the Rev. Mr. Wellworth, the pastor of Rockbridge parish, on the Northumberland shore, a gentleman who, from his elevated moral and intellectual character, was an invaluable acquisition to their limited circle. Mr. Wellworth expressed a hope that Mrs. Helmstedt would come to church, and also that she would call on Mrs. Wellworth, who would be very happy to see her. But Marguerite excused herself by saying that her health and spirits were fluctuating and uncertain, and that she never left home, although she would, at all times, be very much pleased to receive Mr. and Mrs. Wellworth, who, she hoped, would do her the signal favor to waive etiquette and come as often as they could make it convenient or agreeable. Readily admitting the validity of these excuses, the pastor took the lady at her word, and soon brought his wife to visit her. And, excepting the family at Buzzard’s Bluff, this amiable pair were the only acquaintances Mrs. Helmstedt possessed in the neighborhood. Thus calmly and monotonously passed life on and around the island; its passage marked that year by only two important events. The first was the retirement of Colonel Compton from political life (dismissed the public service by the new President, Thomas Jefferson), followed by the breaking up of his establishment at Richmond and the removal to Northumberland County, where the colonel and his wife took up their abode with their daughter and son-in-law at Buzzard’s Bluff. This event broke off the intimate connection between them and the bustling world they had left, though for a few weeks of every winter Nellie went to visit her friends in the city, and for a month or two, every summer, received and entertained them at Buzzard’s Bluff. Nellie declared that without this variety she should go melancholy mad; and at the same time wondered how Marguerite--the beautiful and brilliant Marguerite--would endure the isolation and monotony of her life on the island. The other important occurrence was the accouchement of Mrs. Helmstedt, that took place early in October, when she became the mother of a lovely little girl. The sex of this child was a serious disappointment to Mr. Helmstedt, who had quite set his heart upon a son and heir, and who could scarcely conceal his vexation from the penetrating, beseeching eyes of his unhappy wife. Mrs. Compton came and passed six weeks with the invalid, nursing her with the same maternal care that, in like circumstances, she would have bestowed upon her own daughter Nellie, and often repeating, cheerfully: