She cannot leave her mother is another objection, but that I should not ask her to do--as a landlubber might," he added sportively, "would in all probability.

As much of my life must be spent at sea, it would not be worth while to set up a home of my own on land, if I had a wife who preferred to live with her mother." "Well, sir, that is certainly much in your favor," said Mr.Dinsmore; "our greatest, almost our only objection to your suit being the thought of parting with the child of our love." When Violet came home that evening she did not rejoin the family in the parlor, but went directly to her own apartments.
"Where is mamma ?" she inquired of her maid as she threw off her hat and cloak.
"In de parlor, Miss Wi'let." "Are the children in bed and asleep ?" "Yes, miss." Violet opened a bureau drawer and took therefrom several small packages.
Undoing one, she brought to light the miniature of her father which she had painted.

She carried it to the lamp and stood for some minutes gazing down upon the beloved face with fast-falling tears.
"Oh, papa, papa!" she murmured, "how hard it is to live without you!" At length closing the case and restoring it to the box whence she had taken it, she gathered up the other parcels and went first to her mother's dressing-room, where she laid the little box on the toilet-table, then on to the rooms occupied by her younger sister and brothers, leaving a gift for each.
Going back to her own rooms, she espied a letter directed to herself, which she had not noticed before.

She had seen Capt.

Raymond's handwriting frequently during the weeks he had been at Ion, and recognized it at a glance.