t be permitted to
escort me to her house and see me safe after my disagreeable adventure.
I had no objection to his accompanying myself and the staid maidservant
whom I found waiting for me at the inn when the coach stopped at York;
and Aunt Maria politely insisted on the young man's remaining to partake
of the early breakfast she had prepared to greet my arrival."

"Well, your fright did not end so badly after all, granny," remarked one
of her listeners.

"Not at all badly," replied the old lady with a quiet smile; "but for my
fright I should never have made the acquaintance of that young officer."

"And the officer was----"

"He was _Captain_ Marten then, my dears--he became _General_ Marten
afterwards--and was _your grandfather_."

"HOW JACK MINDED THE BABY."

BY DOROTHY PINHO.

The _Etruria_ was on its way to New York. The voyage had been, so far,
without accidents, or even incidents; the weather had been lovely; the
sea, a magnificent stretch of blue, with a few miniature wavelets
dancing in the sunlight.

Amongst the passengers of the first-class saloon everybody noticed a
slight girlish figure, always very simply attired; in spite of all her
efforts to remain unnoticed, she seemed to attract attention by her
great beauty. People whispered to each other, "Who is she?" All they
knew was that her name was Mrs. Arthur West, and that she was going out
to New York with her two babies to join her husband.

Every morning she was on deck, or sometimes, if the sun was too fierce,
in the saloon, and she made a charming picture reclining in her
deck-chair, with baby Lily lying on her lap, and little Jack playing at
her feet. Baby was only three or four months old; hardly anything more
than a dainty heap of snowy silk and lace to anybody but her mother,
who, of course, thought that nothing on earth could be as clever as the
way she crowed and kicked out her absurd pink morsels of toes.

Master Jack was quite an important personage; he was nearly four years
old and very proud of the fact that this was his second voyage, while
Lily had never been on a ship before, and, as he contemptuously
remarked, "didn't even know who dada was." He was a quaint,
old-fashioned little soul, and though he rather looked down upon his
little sister from the height of his dignity and his first
knickerbockers, he would often look after her for his mother and pat her
off to sleep quite cleverly.

We must not forget to mention "