er were in deep
mourning, and in Mrs. Carrington's countenance Christian resignation
blended with heart-breaking sorrow; grief and anxiety had done the work of
a score of years, silvering her hair and ploughing deep furrows in the
face that five years ago was still fresh and fair.

Mr. Travilla had taken wife and children for a morning drive, and on their
return, Adelaide, meeting them at the door, said to her niece, "They have
come, they are in Mrs. Carrington's dressing-room; and she begs that you
will go and meet her there. She has always loved you so dearly, and I
know is longing for your sympathy."

Elsie, waiting only to lay aside hat and gloves, hastened to grant the
request of the gentle lady for whom she cherished almost a daughter's
affection.

She found her alone. They met silently, clasping each other in a long,
tearful embrace, Mrs. Carrington's sobs for many minutes the only sound
that broke the stillness of the room.

"I have lost all," she said at length, as they released each other and sat
down side by side upon a sofa; "all: husband, sons, home----"

Sobs choked her utterance, and Lucy coming hastily in at the open door of
the adjoining room, dropped on her knees by her mother's side, and taking
one thin, pale hand in hers, said tearfully, "Not all, dear mamma; you
have me, and Phil, and the children."

"Me too, mother dear, and your Harry's children," added Sophie, who had
followed her sister, and now knelt with her.

"Yes, yes, dear daughters, I was wrong: I have lost much, but have many
blessings still left, your love not the least; and my grandchildren are
scarcely less dear than my own. Lucy, dear, here is Elsie."

"Yes, our own dear, darling Elsie, scarcely changed at all!" Lucy cried,
springing up to greet her friend with a warm embrace.

A long talk followed, Mrs. Carrington and Sophie giving their experiences
of the war and its results, to which the others listened with deep
interest.

"Thank God it is over at last!" concluded the elder lady; "and oh, may
He, in His great goodness and mercy, spare us a repetition of it. Oh, the
untold horrors of civil war--strife among brethren who should know nothing
but love for each other--none can imagine but those who have passed
through them! There was fault on both sides, as there always is when
people quarrel. And what has been gained? Immense loss of property, and of
far more precious lives, an exchange of ease and luxury for a hard
strugg