I am but a ghost of my former self.

I write you this that you may not be alarmed when you see me.

It is too late now to repine, but, oh! Em, if my lot had only been cast with yours--had we never been separated--I might have been to-day as happy as you are." It was a clear bright morning when Charlie stepped into a boat to be conveyed to the ship in which Clarence had returned to New York: she had arrived the evening previous, and had not yet come up to the dock.

The air came up the bay fresh and invigorating from the sea beyond, and the water sparkled as it dripped from the oars, which, with monotonous regularity, broke the almost unruffled surface of the bay.

Some of the ship's sails were shaken out to dry in the morning sun, and the cordage hung loosely and carelessly from the masts and yards.