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[Illustration: The stranger raised his hat and said: "Permit me to ask
your name?" "Salome Owen. And yours, sir, is--" "Ulpian Gray." Page
10.--_Vashti._]




VASHTI

_or_ UNTIL DEATH US DO PART

By AUGUSTA EVANS WILSON

(Augusta J. Evans)

Author of "Beulah," "Macaria," "Infelice," "St. Elmo," "Inez," etc.,
etc.,

"There is nothing a man knows, in grief or in sin half so bitter as to
think, what I might have been."


A. L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS NEW YORK




Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1869, by GEORGE W.
CARLETON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United
States for the Southern District of New York.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1897, by MRS.
AUGUSTA J. EVANS WILSON, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at
Washington, D.C.

_Vashti._




TO THE HONORED MEMORY OF MY

_Beloved Father_,

WHOSE DEATH HAS RETARDED THE COMPLETION OF A WORK WHICH, IN THE
BEGINNING, WAS BLESSED WITH HIS APPROVAL,

I REVERENTLY DEDICATE THIS BOOK.




PREFACE.


  "Every man has his own style, as he has his own nose; and it is
  neither polite nor Christian to rally an honest man about his
  nose, however singular it may be. How can I