LVI. LOTTIE'S REVELATIONS 268 LVII. MRS. DENNISON URGES LAWRENCE TO PROPOSE 272 LVIII. AFTER THE PROPOSAL 277 LIX. A HEART-STORM ABATING 282 LX. THE TWO LETTERS 286 LXI. THE DEPARTING GUEST 290 LXII. WHOLLY DESERTED 297 LXIII. OLD-FASHIONED POLITENESS 302 LXIV. NEWS FROM ABROAD 306 LXV. LOTTIE LEAVES A LETTER AND A BOOK 313 LXVI. MRS. DENNISON'S JOURNAL 316 LXVII. OUR FIRST VISITOR 323 LXVIII. THE WATERFALL 329 LXIX. THE THREATENED DEPARTURE 338 LXX. THE MIDNIGHT WALK 348 LXXI. AWAY FROM HOME 355 LXXII. OUT IN THE WORLD AGAIN 358 LXXIII. FIRST WIDOWHOOD 362 LXXIV. LOTTIE'S LETTER 385 LXXV. LOTTIE IN PARIS 392 LXXVI. THE CASKET OF DIAMONDS 395 LXXVII. ALL TOGETHER AGAIN 404 WIVES AND WIDOWS. CHAPTER I. LEAVING MY HOME. At ten years of age I was the unconscious mistress of a heavy stone farm-house and extensive lands in the interior of Pennsylvania, with railroad-bonds and bank-stock enough to secure me a moderate independence. I shall never, never forget the loneliness of that old house the day my mother was carried out of it and laid down by her husband in the churchyard behind the village. The most intense suffering of life often comes in childhood. My mother was dead; I could almost feel her last cold kisses on my lip as I sat down in that desolate parlor, waiting for the guardian who was expected to take me from my dear old home to his. The window opened into a field of white clover, where some cows and lambs were pasturing drowsily, as I had seen them a hundred times; but now their very tranquillity grieved me. It seemed strange that they would stand there so content, with the white clover dropping from their mouths, and I going away forever. My mother's canary-bird, which hung in the window, began to sing joyously over my head, as if no funeral had passed from that room, leaving its shadows behind, and, more grievous still, as if it did not care that I might never sit and listen to it again.