Presently she lifted her head, wiped away her tears, and as her father released her from his arms, turned to her daughter with a tenderly interested and inquiring look.

“What is it, my darling?” she asked, glancing at the letter in the young girl’s hand.

Violet gave it to her, saying, with downcast eyes and blushing cheeks, “I found it on my dressing-table, mamma.  It is from him—­Capt.  Raymond—­and I have written a note in reply.”

“Shall I go away, Vi, and leave you and your mamma to your confidences?” Mr. Dinsmore asked playfully, putting an arm about each and looking with smiling eyes from one to the other.

“No, grandpa, please stay; you know I have no secrets from you,” Violet answered, half hiding her face on his shoulder.

“And are grandpa and I to read both epistles—­yours and his?” asked her mother.

“If you please, mamma.  But mine is not to be given unless you both approve.”

The captain’s was a straightforward, manly letter, renewing his offer with a hearty avowal of strong and deathless love, and replying to her objections as he had already in talking with her mother and grandfather.

Violet’s answer did not contain any denial of a return of his affection; she simply thanked him for the honor done her, but said she did not feel old enough or wise enough for the great responsibilities of married life.

“Rather non-committal, isn’t it, little cricket?” was her grandfather’s playful comment.  “It strikes me that you neither accept nor reject him.”

“Why, grandpa,” she said confusedly, “I thought it was a rejection.”

Mr. Dinsmore and his daughter had seated themselves near the table, on which a lamp was burning, and Violet knelt on a hassock at her mother’s feet, half hiding her blushing face on her lap.

“Ah, my little girl!” Elsie said, with playful tenderness, putting one hand under Vi’s chin, and lifting the fair face to look into it with keen, loving scrutiny, “were I the captain, I should not despair; the citadel of my Vi’s heart is half won.”

The cheeks were dyed with hotter blushes at that, but no denial came from the ruby lips.  “Mamma, I do not want to marry yet for years,” she said, “and I think it will not be easy for any one to win me away from you.”

“But he says he will not take you away,” remarked her grandpa.

“Are you on his side, grandpa?” asked Violet.

“Only if your heart is, my dear child.”  “And in that case I am on his side too,” said her mother, “because I desire my little girl’s happiness even more than her dear companionship as exclusively my own.”

“Except what belongs to her grandpa and guardian,” said Mr. Dinsmore, taking Vi’s arm and gently drawing her to a seat upon his knee.