And that was your answer to Capt.

Raymond ?" "Yes, sir." "Very well, go and tell mamma about it--she will be as glad as I am to hear that we are not to lose our darling little Vi--while I see what I can say to comfort the captain." He released her as he spoke, and she flew to do his bidding.
Rosie and Walter were still with their mother in her boudoir, but as Violet came in with her flushed, agitated face, they were gently bidden to run away for a little while.
As the door closed on them, Violet dropped on her knees by her mother's chair and laid her head in her lap, hiding her face.
"My dear child! my dear, precious little daughter!" Elsie said, softly smoothing the golden tresses.
"Mamma, you know ?" "Yes, dearest." "O mamma, I can't leave you! how could I ?" "Dear child! it would be a sore trial to have to part with you; and I cannot be sorry that you are not ready or willing to go.

You are one of the very great blessings and comforts of your mother's life!" "Dearest mother, thank you! They are very sweet words to hear from your lips," Violet said, lifting her face to look up into her mother's with a beautiful smile.
"And so you have said your suitor nay ?" Elsie asked, with playful look and tone.
"I hardly know what I said, mamma, except that I was too young and foolish and couldn't leave you!" "You do not care for him at all ?" "I--I don't know, mamma!" and the sweet, innocent face was suffused with blushes; "I had never thought of his fancying me--hardly more than a child--while he--mamma, is he not very noble and good and wise?
and so brave and unselfish!--you know how he risked his life to save a poor old negress; and how much he has suffered in consequence, and how patiently he has borne it all!" "And how handsome he is ?" "Yes, mamma, one reads the nobility of his nature in his face, and his bearing is soldierly." "Ah, my little girl! my heart misgives me that I hold you by a very frail tenure!" Elsie sighed between a smile and a tear, as she bent her head to look searchingly into the depths of the azure eyes.
Violet's face crimsoned, and her head went down again into her mother's lap.
"Mamma, you need not fear," she said, very low and tremulously, "I have rejected his offer, and I cannot leave you." "I am much mistaken if he is so easily repulsed," Elsie said.

"He is a brave soldier, and will renew the assault nor raise the siege of my daughter's heart until he has brought it to a full if not unconditional surrender." "Mamma, I wish I could run away." "Come, then, to the Laurels with me, and you need not return until bedtime to-night, unless you choose." Vi's face brightened, then clouded again.

"Thank you, mamma, I will go, yet it will be putting off the evil day for but a very little while." "It will give you time to think and analyze your own feelings, so that you will be the better prepared for the next assault," was the playful rejoinder.