“Dearest mother, they may wonder a little; but, upon the whole, they will be well pleased. Besides, shall their wonder prevent you being comfortable? You need each other’s society—you and the minister. You are both so lonely—you in your mansion, he in his lodgings; you need each other. Come! accept him, mother. Magnus and I will give you our blessing,” laughed Elsie; and then, immediately regretting her involuntary levity, she said seriously: “Dear mother, think of this. You have reached the summit-point of life; before you lies the descent into the vale of years; your old friend stands on the same ground, with the same road before him. Give your hand to your dear old friend, and go ye down the vale together.” Elsie was successful in her efforts. Before another winter the lady and the minister were married; and thenceforward the serene and beautiful life of the pair gave a poetic fitness to the name of their homestead, “Mount Calm.” Dr. and Mrs. Hardcastle made Hemlock Hollow their place of permanent residence. They erected an elegant mansion, and improved and adorned the grounds with such artistic taste that it was considered one of the most beautiful seats in old St. Mary’s. The Honorable Ulysses and Mrs. Roebuck spent their summers at Point Pleasant, and their winters in the metropolis, until the Honorable Ulysses grew weary of political life and careless of popularity, and lost his election, when they took up their permanent abode at the Point, with Judge Jacky Wylie. And the families of Hemlock Hollow, Mount Calm, and Point Pleasant formed an intimate social circle, and kept up their agreeable relations after the St. Mary’s fashion of family dinner-parties, social tea-drinkings, fish feasts upon the coast, fox-hunts among the gentlemen, neighborhood dances, etc.; while the gentle, but powerful influence emanating from Mount Calm spread the spirit of religion over all. Dr. and Mrs. Hutton eventually settled in a Southern State. Miss Joe Cotter remained with them to the end of her long life. Consistent in her economy to the very last, she devoted the remaining years of her life to “laying up treasures in heaven.” Dr. Hutton became one of the most celebrated physicians in the country, and amassed a large fortune. Mrs. Hutton became one of the brightest stars in the great Southern constellation of beauty, genius, and fashion. Their home is a beautiful edifice on the banks of a Southern lake, within easy distance of the city. For elegance, taste, and luxury it is scarcely excelled by the far-famed palaces of the Old World. From his present affluent ease Dr. Hutton delights to look back upon his early struggles, and he repeats now, with more emphasis than before, that, “A young American should never permit himself to depend upon the accidents of fortune for success in life; for in our prosperous country a man of good health and good habits need never fail to make an independence for himself and family, and to win the blessing of God.”