-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. "Go now, dear child, and make yourself ready. The carriage
will be at the door almost immediately--Arthur has consented to my taking
the children in a close carriage. They must return before sundown, but you
need not be in such haste."

Mr. Dinsmore did not find Capt. Raymond looking so completely cast down as
he had expected. His face was slightly flushed, his expression somewhat
perplexed and disappointed, but by no means despairing.

"I fear I have been too precipitate," he said, in answer to his host's
inquiring look. "'The more haste the less speed,' as the old proverb has
it. I fear I frightened the dear girl by too sudden and vehement an avowal
of my passion. Yet I trust it may not be too late to retrieve my error."

"She rejected your suit?" Mr. Dinsmore said interrogatively.

"Yes, she seemed to do so!" sighed the lover, "yet the objections she
urged are not insurmountable. She calls herself too young and foolish, but
I hope to convince her that that is a mistake. Young she is indeed, but
very far from foolis