s, the
long-estranged couple grew affectionate and confidential.

"Law, Sallie!" said the captain, caressingly, "we can be as happy as two
pigs in clover!" And he proceeded to interpret, in plain prosaic detail,
those blissful possibilities expressed by the choice poetic figure.

It was evident to Salina that all his domestic plans were founded on the
supposition that the slippers he had on were the dead man's shoes he had
been waiting for. Was she shocked by this cold, atrocious spirit of
calculation? At first she was; but since she had begun to pardon his
faults, she could easily overlook that. She, who had lately been so
spiteful and bitter, was now all charity towards this man. Even the
image of her blind and aged father faded from her mind; even the pure
and beautiful image of her sister grew dim; and the old, revivified
attachment became supreme. Shall we condemn the weakness? Or shall we
pity it, rather? So long her affections had been thwarted! So long she
had carried that lonely and hungry heart! So long, like a starved, sick
child, it had fretted and cried, till now, at last, nurture and warmth
made it grateful and glad! A babe is a sacred thing; and so is love. But
if you starve and beat them? Perhaps Salina's unhappiness of temper owed
its development chiefly to this cause. No wonder, then, that we find her
melancholy, morbid, unreasonable, and now so ready to cling again to
this wretch, this scamp, her husband, forgiving all, forgetting all (for
the moment at least), in the wild flood of love and tears that drowned
the past.

"O, yes! I do think we can be happy!" she said--"if you will only be
kind and good to me! If not here, why, then, somewhere else; for place
is of no consequence; all I want is love."

"Ah!" said Lysander, knocking the ashes from his cigar, "but I have a
fancy for this place! And what should we leave it for?"

"Because--you know--there is no certainty--I believe father is alive
yet, and well."

"Not unless Toby lied to me!--Did he?"

"Pshaw! you can't place any reliance on what Toby says!"--evasively.

"But I tell you Pepperill confirms his report about the dead bodies in
the ravine! Now, what do you know to the contrary?" Lysander appeared
very much excited, and a quarrel was imminent. Salina dreaded a quarrel.
She broke into a laugh.

"The truth is, Toby did fool you. He couldn't help bragging to me about
it."

O Toby, Toby! that little innocent vanity of yours is destined