of very different gossip to the contrary notwithstanding,) but there were

several other heirs and they would be guided entirely by the Senator's

wishes; and finally, many people averred that while it would be easy to

sell the lands to the government for the benefit of the negro, by

resorting to the usual methods of influencing votes, Senator Dilworthy

was unwilling to have so noble a charity sullied by any taint of

corruption--he was resolved that not a vote should be bought. Nobody

could get anything definite from Laura about these matters, and so gossip

had to feed itself chiefly upon guesses. But the effect of it all was,

that Laura was considered to be very wealthy and likely to be vastly more

so in a little while. Consequently she was much courted and as much

envied: Her wealth attracted many suitors. Perhaps they came to worship

her riches, but they remained to worship her. Some of the noblest men of

the time succumbed to her fascinations. She frowned upon no lover when

he made his first advances, but by and by when she was hopelessly

enthralled, he learned from her own lips that she had formed a resolution

never to marry. Then he would go away hating and cursing the whole sex,

and she would calmly add his scalp to her string, while she mused upon

the bitter day that Col. Selby trampled her love and her pride in the

dust. In time it came to be said that her way was paved with broken

hearts.

Poor Washington gradually woke up to the fact that he too was an

intellectual marvel as well as his gifted sister. He could not conceive

how it had come about (it did not occur to him that the gossip about his

family's great wealth had any thing to do with it). He could not account

363

The Gilded Age