CHAPTER VIII.
COUSIN BERINTHA AND LUCY'S PARTY.
Cousin Berintha, whom Lucy Dayton so much disliked and dreaded, was a cousin of Mr.Dayton, and was a prim, matter-of-fact maiden of fifty, or thereabout.

That she was still in a state of single blessedness was partially her own fault, for at twenty she was engaged to the son of a wealthy farmer who lived near her father.

But, alas! ere the wedding day arrived, there came to the neighborhood a young lady from Boston, in whose presence the beauty of the country girl grew dim, as do the stars in the rays of the morning sun.
Berintha had a plain face, but a strong heart, and when she saw that Amy Holbrook was preferred, with steady hand and unflinching nerve, she wrote to her recreant lover that he was free.

And now Amy, to whom the false knight turned, took it into her capricious head that she would not marry a farmer--she had always fancied a physician; and if young B---- would win her, he must first secure the title of M.D.

He complied with her request, and one week from the day on which he received his diploma Berintha read, with a slightly blanched cheek, the notice of his marriage with the Boston beauty.