“Oh, I hope so!” he returned; “and if I don’t, I think there should be no excuse made for me—­a boy with such a father and such friends as you and all the rest of the folks here.”

“I am pleased that you appreciate your opportunities, Max,” Elsie said.

Just at that moment Evelyn and Lulu came up the veranda steps with hands filled with wild-flowers culled from among the myriads of beautiful ones that spangled the velvety lawn where they had been strolling together ever since leaving the house.

“See what lovely flowers.  Grandma Elsie!” cried Lulu.  “Oh, I thank you for bringing me here to Viamede, and for saying that I may gather as many of these as I please!”

“I am very glad you enjoy it, dear child,” Elsie answered.  “It was one of my great pleasures as a child, and is such to this day.”

“I gathered mine for you and Mamma Vi,” said Lulu; “and—­oh, I should like to put this lovely white one in your hair, if you don’t mind, Grandma Elsie,” she added with a wistful look into the sweet face still so smooth and fair, spite of the passing years.

“If I don’t mind?  I shall be pleased to have it there,” was the smiling reply; and Lulu hastened to avail herself of the gracious permission; then stepping back to note the effect, “Oh,” she cried, “how lovely it does look against your beautiful golden-brown hair, Grandma Elsie!  Doesn’t it, Evelyn?”

“Yes, indeed!” exclaimed both Max and Evelyn; the latter adding, “I never saw more beautiful or abundant hair, or lovelier complexion; it seems really absurd to call a lady ‘grandma’ who looks so young.”

“So it does,” said Max; “but we all love her so that we want to be some relation, and can’t bear to say Mrs. Travilla, and what can be done about it?”

As he spoke, Grace came running out and joined them, wearing a very bright, happy face.

“Oh, Grandma Elsie, and everybody, I’m just as glad as I can be!” she cried.  “I don’t have to go to school, because mamma is so kind; she says she will teach me at home.”

While the others were expressing their sympathy in her happiness, Mr. Dinsmore joined them.

“Here are letters,” he said.  “For you, Elsie, from Edward and your college boys; and one for each of the Raymonds, from the captain.”

He distributed them as he spoke, giving Violet’s to Max with a request that he would carry it to her.

“Thank you, sir; I’ll be delighted to do the errand; because nothing pleases Mamma Vi so much as a letter from papa, unless it is a sight of his face,” said Max, hurrying away with it.

Grace, always eager to share every joy with “her dear mamma,” ran after him with her own letter in her hand.

What a treasure it was! a letter from papa, with her name on it in his writing, so that there could be no doubt that it was entirely her very own!  How nice to have it so!  But unless there was a secret in it, mamma should have the pleasure of reading it; Max and Lulu too:  for there was very little selfishness in Grace’s sweet nature.