ly, lovely bracelets and necklace! and this handsome
sash too!" cried Lulu in wide-eyed astonishment. "Oh, you are just too,
too good to me! May I kiss you? and may I call you Mamma Vi now?"

"Yes, indeed, if you can give me a little place in your heart," Violet
answered, taking the little girl in her arms.

"Oh, a great big place!" cried Lulu, returning Vi's caresses with ardor.
"Mamma Vi! it's a very pretty name, and you are my own sweet, pretty new
mamma! A great deal nicer than if you were old enough to be my real
mother."

"Ah, Lulu, it makes me very happy to hear all that!" said her father's
voice behind her, and she felt his hand laid affectionately upon her head.

She turned round quickly. "Ah, papa! how nice you look too! How is
Gracie?"

"I left her sleeping comfortably a half hour ago, and have been making my
toilet in another room. Ah, my love!" gazing at Violet with proud,
fondly-admiring eyes, "how very lovely you are!"

"In my husband's partial eyes," she returned, looking up at him with a
bright, sweet smile.

"In Lulu's, too, judging from what I heard her say just now," he said,
turning his eyes upon his daughter again. "Ah, how you have improved her
appearance!"

"Yes, papa, only see these lovely things she--Mamma Vi has given me!"
cried Lulu, displaying her ornaments.

"A most generous gift," he said, examining the jewelry. "These coral
ornaments are costly, Lulu, and you must be careful of them. Mamma Vi! Is
that the name you have chosen for yourself, my love?" he asked, again
turning to his bride.

"Yes, if you approve, Levis?"

"I like it!" he returned emphatically.

"And the other ladies," remarked Lulu, "say I am to call them Grandma Rose
and Grandma Elsie. And the gentleman told me and Max to call him grandpa."

"May I come in?" asked Max at the door, which stood wide open.

"Yes," his father and Violet both answered.

"Oh!" he cried, gazing at Violet in undisguised admiration, "how lovely,
how splendid you look! What shall I call you?--you said, you know, and of
course anybody can see it, that you're not old enough to be my mother."

"No," she said, with a look of amusement and pleasure, "so you may use the
name Lulu and Gracie will call me--Mamma Vi."

"Miss Wilet," said Agnes, appearing at the door, "dey says dey's waitin'
suppah fo' you and de captain."

"Ah, then we must not linger here! Lulu dear, let Agnes tie this ribbon on
your hair. She can do it more tastefully t