see father safely back again?"

The baby cooed as a sign of contentment, but whether this was the result
of the contemplation of her silver rattle, or of her father's return,
may not be told.

Then the happy party turned into the house, and Leslie drew from the
wide pocket of his blue coat with brass buttons a sheaf of letters.

He singled one from the rest, and said gravely:

"I got the letters at Louth. This tells sad news. It has been written
for Amelia Graves."

"Dear Graves!" Griselda exclaimed; "what does she say?" She took the
letter, written in a round clerkly hand from her husband, and read:

"DEAR AND HONOURED SIR:

"This leaves me well; but I have to inform you my poor mistress
departed this life yesterday. I prayed by her, and asked the
Lord to pardon her. Honoured sir--and you, dear Madam
Travers--that bad man, Sir Maxwell Danby, behaved so ill, that
she had to leave his home. He is gone to foreign parts again,
and let us hope never to return. He treated my poor mistress
shameful, and she was made miserable. We went to Bath for last
season, but she was too ill to enter into gaieties, and sank
into a sad state--mind and body.

"I send my duty to you, honoured sir, and the dear lady, your
wife, and remain,

"Your humble servant,

"AMELIA GRAVES."

Griselda's sweet face became very grave as she read this letter. Then
she folded it and returned it to her husband.

"I should like Graves to come and live with us, and take care of her in
her old age. Might I ask her?"

Then Leslie bent over his wife, and kissing her, said:

"I knew that would be your wish. I will write by next post to Bath, and
bid her come hither. She was good to you when you were in trouble, and
won my lasting gratitude."

"Poor Lady Betty! Oh that she ever was so blind--so foolish--as to marry
that dreadful man! I never see his name without a shudder!"

The news this letter contained had brought back to the happy wife and
mother many sad memories; but the past did not long cloud her present.

As she put her hand into her husband's arm that evening when the
children were asleep, and no sound broke the silence as they paced the
garden walk, she stopped suddenly, and said:

"Dearest, you have made my life so beautiful. You have taught me so
much. You said once--do you remember?--you would die for me, or live for
me! You have lived for me, and I----"

"A