--The Thorn rankles
32.--Dear Old Ess again
33.--The Fatal Discovery
34.--"Murder will out"
35.--The Wedding
36.--And the Last
CHAPTER I.
In which the Reader is introduced to a Family of peculiar Construction.
It was at the close of an afternoon in May, that a party might have been
seen gathered around a table covered with all those delicacies that, in the
household of a rich Southern planter, are regarded as almost necessaries of
life. In the centre stood a dish of ripe strawberries, their plump red
sides peeping through the covering of white sugar that had been plentifully
sprinkled over them. Geeche limes, almost drowned in their own rich syrup,
temptingly displayed their bronze-coloured forms just above the rim of the
glass that contained them. Opposite, and as if to divert the gaze from
lingering too long over their luscious beauty, was a dish of peaches
preserved in brandy, a never-failing article in a Southern matron's
catalogues of sweets. A silver basket filled with a variety of cakes was in
close proximity to a plate of corn-flappers, which were piled upon it like
a mountain, and from the brown tops of which trickled tiny rivulets of
butter. All these dainties, mingling their various odours with the aroma of
the tea and fine old java that came steaming forth from the richly chased
silver pots, could not fail to produce a very appetising effect.
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