“Do with me as you will, Edith, my sister.”

There was really no argument, there were no reasons given, which could persuade any mind, having first resolved on the one purpose, to abandon it for the other.  How many reasons had Lucy for being firm in the first resolution she had made!

But the ends of wisdom do not depend upon the reasons which enforce conviction.  Nay, conviction itself, where the heart is concerned, is rarely to be moved by any efforts, however noble, of the simply reasoning faculty.

Shall we call them arts—­the processes by which Edith Colleton had persuaded Lucy Munro to her purposes?  No! it was the sweet nature, the gentle virtues, the loving tenderness, the warm sympathies, the delicate tact—­these, superior to art and reason, were made evident to the suffering girl, in the long interview in which they were together; and her soul melted under their influence, and the stubborn will was subdued, and again she murmured lovingly—­

“Do with me as you will, my sister.”

CHAPTER XLII.

“LAST SCENE OF ALL.”

There was no little stir in the village of Chestatee on the morning following that on which the scene narrated in the preceding chapter had taken place.  It so happened that several of the worthy villagers had determined to remove upon that day; and Colonel Colleton and his family, consisting of his daughter, Lucy Munro, and his future son-in-law, having now no further reason for delay, had also chosen it as their day of departure for Carolina.  Nor did the already named constitute the sum total of the cavalcade setting out for that region.  Carolina was about to receive an accession in the person of the sagacious pedler, who, in a previous conversation with both Colonel Colleton and Ralph, had made arrangements for future and large adventures in the way of trade—­having determined, with the advice and assistance of his newly-acquired friends, to establish one of those wonders of various combinations, called a country store, among the good people of Sumter district.  Under their direction, and hopeful of the Colleton patronage and influence, Bunce never troubled himself to dream of unprofitable speculations; but immediately drawing up letters for his brother and some other of his kinsmen engaged in the manufacture, in Connecticut, of one kind of notion or other, he detailed his new designs, and furnished liberal orders for the articles required and deemed necessary for the wants of the free-handed backwoodsmen of the South.  Lest our readers should lack any information on the subject of these wants, we shall narrate a brief dialogue between the younger Colleton and our worthy merchant, which took place but a few hours before their departure:—­

“Well, Bunce, are you ready?  We shall be off now in a couple of hours or so, and you must not keep us waiting.  Pack up at once, man, and make yourself ready.”