In two days both left, the lawyer ostensibly for South America, and Octavia for New York City. Both, however, drew their money from the bank, and bought New York exchange. They were quietly married in the metropolis of America. After marriage he laughingly told Octavia of the deception he had practiced upon her--that the notice in the city papers of his intended departure for South America was only a ruse to bring her to terms; that he had made no resignation, at that time, of his office, and that the notice was paid for as an advertisement. He said it was a two-edged sword, cutting both ways; at first, deceiving her, and then, the public, but with this difference: She was undeceived, while the public still thought he was by this time in the wilds of South America. She embraced him, and amid a perfect shower of kisses, said: "Let the public think as they please, the fact remains that you are my own dear husband, whom I love better than life itself, and I am glad, oh, so glad, that you took that means to bring me to terms. If you had not, I might have refused you from time to time, on account of the fraction of African blood that circulates in my veins, and you might, through spite, have married some woman that you did not love." He admitted that there was much philosophy in what she had said, and, if she hadn't married him, that he might now have been in the Alabama River. He said that he didn't wonder at those Northern men killing themselves, and one another, about her. Then saying, "My dear wife, let's dismiss all of those unpleasant things of the past, and talk about the future. Where shall we 'drive down stakes?'" She said she would leave all that with him. While both of their means, put together, would make a fortune, and judiciously invested, would provide for them, the balance of their days, she was sure that a man of his caliber would want an active life, and would go where he could find it. "Thank you," said he; "and that means one of the mining States of the West, which is comparatively new." And there they went, and he prospered as he never did before. He located in the capital of the State, and soon was doing a good law practice. Octavia became the center of attraction for a large coterie of friends, and if her husband had been of a jealous disposition, he might have shown it.