Year: 1879

the Attaseck received her own. But letter to the Department, requesting { leave of absence from his ship, went into the mail from the next harbor they en- tered, and the time that passed before answer came and the request was granted was longer than all the rest of Norman Macpherson's life. And although he travelled homeward as fast as steam could carry him, to his frame of mind cleo tricity would have seemed slow.

 With what elation he saw at last, the long, long miles having raveled out be hind him like the clearing of tangled skein, the lights of the city stretching on all the radiation of it's avenues How gladly and eagerly, two hours after that he hurried up the street of the little suburban town, picturing to himself the sight of Emily, the sparkle of her sur. prise, the next moment when he should feel her arms around him, hardly daring to, lock up, his heart beating so. And when he did at last look up, it was only to see blinds closed and paths overgrown, and the latch Of the gate too rusty to lift easily-only to find, with benumbed sense of the world having come to an end, that Emily and her mother had gone and, as his own people had scat tered long ago, there was nobody in that neighborhood to tell him where.

 But after few hours his wits returned to MT. Macpherson he remembered that the family had friends, and from one to another he went then in the fol- lowing weeks but to no purpose all that he could discover was that Emily and her mother were in Europe, but in what portion of it nobody seemed to know. For little while he experienced all the black despair of such revulsion from hope. But there was nothing to do. He cursed his i'll fortune, and con- trived to get transferred to the European squadron, and then began his search anew. As fate had ordered it, perhaps in mockery of his impulsiveness, he had not even learned the name Of the officer who had demanded satisfaction he did not even know if that officer belonged to the Attaseck :; but he wrote to one of his old comrades to learn about him if possi- ble, and meantime he waited and waited.

 MT. Macpherson's habits changed, too, somewhat. From having never gone ashore, he now never staid on ship, if he could get away, when shore was in sight. Town after town he secured. journey after journey he managed to make, bank after bank he visited, at post after post he asked. But he found no trace of what he sought; and as the year closed he said to himself that it was of no use, and that he was man with memory and without hope. Still he continued to go ashore when in harbor, although more from habit TOW than from expecta- tion, sunshine or storm making little difference.

 He had come ashore one day as usual, on the afternoon of the morning when the frigate entered port, and had taken a stroll through the little town, and had lost himself in the upper part of it. The lowering weather of the morning had ripened to drizzling mist at last, and now it was raining in steady down. pour that the wind caught up in slanting sheets. He had, however, bought an umbrella at some shop, and was hurry ing down to the shore-picturesque as ever, with all it's boats and nets, in the advancing twilight, wrapped in gusts of rain that now and then opened and dis closed the masts rocking in the ofing- and wondering only if he would find the sailors waiting with the gig. The wind was straight in his face, and the rain came fine as needles he held the umbrella, as he bent to the force of the gale, directly before him, like an African warriors shield; and that is the reason that suddenly he found himself brought to stand-still, as with a sudden shock his umbrella had interlocked with another, like two horned creatures doing battle. "A thousand pardons," he ex- claimed, grufdy, in English, before he bethought himself of his French. "Do pray excuse me" came parcel of silver notes, in English too. And then, in another moment, both of the umbrellas were sailing off upon the blast and career1ng out to sea-but what cared they who saw them in that gathering gloom, as Emily and he were clasped in one another's arms, and life was whole again?

 They were married the next day; and although, year afterward, Norman left the navy and entered business, it was not till that morose man had earned the ranntatiOn Of hnin O fha iO1iost docr oAoo4