he Tudors,--a double-handled porringer with a coat of arms engraved on
its somewhat dented sides. Clover, like most Americans, had a passion
for the antique; so this present was sure to please.

"And you are really off to-morrow," said Isabel at the gate. "How I wish
I were going too."

"And how I wish I were not going at all, but staying on with you,"
responded Imogen. "Mother says if Lionel isn't married by the end of
three years she'll send Beatrice out to take my place. She'll be turned
twenty then, and would like to come. Isabel, you'll be married before I
get back, I know you will."

"It's most improbable. Girls don't marry in England half so easily as in
America. It will be you who will marry, and settle over there
permanently."

"Never!" cried Imogen.

Then the two friends exchanged a last kiss and parted.

"My love to Clover," Isabel called back.

"Always Clover," thought Imogen; but she smiled, and answered, "Yes."

CHAPTER III.

THE LAST OF DEVON AND THE FIRST OF AMERICA.

WITH the morrow came the parting from home. "Farewell" is never an easy
word to say when seas are to separate those who love each other, but the
Young family uttered it bravely and resolutely. Lionel, who was
impatient to get to work and to his beloved High Valley, was more than
ready to go. His face, among the sober ones, looked aggressively
cheerful.

"Cheer up, mother," he said, consolingly. "You'll be coming over in a
year or two with the Pater, and Moggy and I will give you such a good
time as you never had in your lives. We'll all go up to Estes Park and
camp out for a month. I can see you now coming down the trail on a
burro,--what fun it will be."

"Who knows?" said Mrs. Young, with a smile that was half a sigh. She and
her husband had sent a good many sons and daughters out into the world
to seek their fortunes, and so far not one of them had come back. To be
sure, all were doing well in their several ways,--Cyril in India, where
he had an excellent appointment, and the second boy in the army; two
were in the navy, and Tom and Giles in Van Diemen's Land, where they
were making a very good thing out of a sheep ranch. There was no reason
why Lionel should not be equally lucky with his cattle in Colorado;
there were younger children to be considered; it was "all in the day's
work," the natural thing. Large families must separate, parents could
not expect to keep their grown boys and girls with them always. So th