he army.

Herbert and Meta Carrington were at the North; the one attending college,
the other at boarding-school. Old Mrs. Carrington was still living; making
her home at Ashlands; and through her, the Rosses were frequently heard
from.

They were still enjoying a large measure of worldly prosperity, Mr. Ross
being a very successful merchant. He had taken his son Philip into
partnership a year ago, and Lucy's letter spoke much of the lad as
delighting his father and herself, by his business ability and shrewdness.

They had their city residence, as well as their country seat. Gertrude had
made her debut into fashionable society in the fall, and spent a very gay
winter, and the occasional letters she wrote to the younger Elsie, were
filled with descriptions of the balls, parties, operas and theatricals she
attended, the splendors of her own attire, and the elegant dresses worn by
others.

It may be that at another time Elsie, so unaccustomed to worldly
pleasures, would have found these subjects interesting from their very
novelty; but now while the parting from Lily was so recent, when her
happy death had brought the glories of heaven so near, how frivolous they
seemed.

They had more attraction for excitable, excitement-loving Violet; yet even
she, interested for the moment, presently forgot them again, as something
reminded her of the dear little sister, who was not lost but gone before
to the better land.

Vi had a warm, loving heart; no one could be fonder of home, parents,
brothers and sisters than she, but as spring drew on, she began to have a
restless longing for change of scene and employment. She had been growing
fast, and felt weak and languid.

Both she and Elsie had attained their full height, Vi being a trifle the
taller of the two; they grew daily in beauty and grace, and were not more
lovely in person than in character and mind.

They were as open as the day with their gentle, tender mother, and their
fond, proud father--proud of his lovely wife, and his sons and daughters,
whose equals he truly believed were not to be found anywhere throughout
the whole length and breadth of the land. So Vi was not slow in telling of
her desire for change.

It was on a lovely evening in May, when the whole family were gathered in
the veranda, serenely happy in each other's society, the babe in his
mother's arms, Rosie on her father's knee, the others grouped about them,
doing nothing but enjoy the rest and qui