Bessie and Harry had already confided their affection to Elizabeth,
but she was quite determined that there should be no engagement until
after Harry returned from a three-years' travel in Europe and Asia.
"Then, Harry," she said, "you will have seen the women of many lands.
And Bessie will also have seen something of the world, and of the
society around her. She must choose you from among all others, and
not simply because habit and contiguity and family relations have
thrown you together."
Still it pleased her, that from every part of the world came regularly
and constantly letters and tokens of Harry's love for her daughter.
She would not force, she would not even desire, such a consummation;
but yet, if a true and tried affection should unite the cousins, it
would be a wonderful settlement of that succession which had so
troubled and perplexed her father, and which at last he had humbly left
to the wisdom and direction of a higher Power.
Therefore, when Harry, in his twenty-fourth year, browned and bearded
with much travel, came back to New Orleans, to ask the hand of the
only woman he had ever loved, Elizabeth was very happy. Her daughter
was going back to her old home, going to be the mistress of its fair
sunny rooms, and renew in her young life the hopes and memories of
a by-gone generation.
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