In the story, one is sent to England, there to make his way; and the other is for awhile supposed to have been killed by the Indians.

How he was not killed, but after awhile comes again forward in the world of fiction, will be found in the story, which it is not our purpose to set forth here.

The most interesting part of the narrative is that which tells us of the later fortunes of Madame Beatrix,--the Baroness Bernstein,--the lady who had in her youth been Beatrix Esmond, who had then condescended to become Mrs.Tasker, the tutor's wife, whence she rose to be the "lady" of a bishop, and, after the bishop had been put to rest under a load of marble, had become the baroness,--a rich old woman, courted by all her relatives because of her wealth.
In _The Virginians_, as a work of art, is discovered, more strongly than had shown itself yet in any of his works, that propensity to wandering which came to Thackeray because of his idleness.

It is, I think, to be found in every book he ever wrote,--except _Esmond_; but is here more conspicuous than it had been in his earlier years.

Though he can settle himself down to his pen and ink,--not always even to that without a struggle, but to that with sufficient burst of energy to produce a large average amount of work,--he cannot settle himself down to the task of contriving a story.