Year: 1874

AS we steamed out of sight of tn,
| landing I watched Ralph narrowl,
| to see if the familiar landmarks un
manned him or brought back the ole
| irremediable trouble. I wss glad Il
| find that he wore the usual air of cold
ness and reticence that seemed to have
! quite taken the place of the old reck
! lessness and impulse. His eyes were
| certainly fixed with unusual INTEREST," upor
the sloping shores of the peninsula
| and when little fishing boat dropped
her sail in one of the snug little covef
near by, and a boatman stepping out
! disclosed the form of a woman and thai
OF little child clinging to her gar
ments, Ralph turned away, a frown con.
! tracted his forehead, and he put his
hand to his head as if to arrest a sharp
remembrance there. But he was him.
self again presently, and began to con.
trast our glorious hafbOr with that OF
Naples. He was reminded of the anus.
ing incident that occurred during ouI
sojOurn there, and as his low, somewhat
musical laugh fell upon the evening
air, l don't know what force impelled
me to turn my head and look at a wo-
man standing at the furthest end of the
deck. She was leaning against one of
the pillars of the boat, the folds of her
dress blown about it by the sea-wind,
and her long, slender, ungloved fingers
resting caressingly upon the shoulders
of a child by her side.


Her face was pale, even paler than of
old. She appeared not see me /; her
great luminous eyes seemed conscious
of but the one object but they fell
upon Ralph with a gaze magnetic
enough to lift him from that camp
stool and draw him to her side.


With an involuntary shudder 1 shifted
my place to one that made barrier be-
tween them ; but the power of her
glance was potent enOu yh to render him
already uneasy. The light gradually
faded from his eyes his laughter died
away a melancholy settled on his face
like that of the darkness on the reced-
ing shores.


''Come, Ralph, I said, "Iet's go be-
low bit, and have a lounge in the cabin;
the evening air is chill"


d" I believe it must be" he replied,
for feel sort of trembling sensation
about me. Pray Heaven it isn't chill !
It would be wonderful-now wouldn'tit,
Harry ?-if, after escaping the plague
in Syria and the cholera in Russia, 1
should fall a victim to an American
speciality, fever and ague.


' The best thing in the world for
that" said, warily keeping my posi-
ton in front of him, " is a good dose of
brandy and pepper. Let's go below and
get if.


"I believe you've got a touch of it
too" he said, as we reached the stairs
"You've either turned a palish green
since I last looked at you, or it's the re-
Election of a dismal fancy"


Once reaching the comfortable region
below the deck, the glowing from the
furnace shedding a sort of heat over
the place, and the warm cOloring in the
furniture shutting ont the cold light of
the dying day up stairs, the strong dose
of brandy dispelling all fear of miasma,
Ralph and disposed of ourselves in a
couple of arm chairs in the cabin, and
resolved to remain there for the rest of
the trip. He closed his eyes, and I
Thought he fell asleep; but, as for me,
never was more wide awake in my
life.


What wonderful destiny brought that
woman here at this moment? So many
years had gone by without a word of
communication between them, I began
to hope that the gap never would be





In the other world there might some
thing, perhaps, be done for two strug-
CLING, helpless souls but here, hem
med in by circumstances unrelenting
and even blameless, there was not even
room for complaint.


1t was not the fault of Ralph that he
loved her. Idon't believe that he knew
it himself till it was too late.


When he came down here long ago
for that summer vacation, Heaven knows
the place had charms enough to allure
us. The broad waters of the bay were
filed with game for our piscatOrial
fancy; the beautiful grouping of the
clouds, the filtering of sunshine down
through the leaves of woods, then un-
touched by the spoiler, the cloudless,
heaven bright days of a summer on the
wave, were filled with food for our
.yearning for the beautiful.


If we had only never met Captain
Jack


Yet Captain Jack alone would have
been an unadulterated element of Joy.
He was as clever, honest, and genial a
fellow as ever went in purs nit of oysters
In these waters or those of Virginia.
His fishing smack might well have been
called yacht, it was so handsome and
complete. But being the soul of hospi
tality, and generous to a fault, he would
insist upon our sharing his house and
seeing his wife Mary.


If you call the scow handsome, ]
don't know what you'll say TO her !" he
chuckled, with infinite delight and
pride.


We said nothing. How he got her,
and where, was useless to ask; but had
he plunged to the neither deep and
fished up a mermaid, the most beautiful
in that watery kingdom, had he mounted
in balloon to the stars and picked her
of from one of those bits of fire, had
he ransacked the elements themselves
for a prodigy of beauty and grace, he
could not have gone beyond little May.
Jack always called her Mary, but Ralph
said she must be called May, because
she was the embodiment of spring-of
ali that was fresh and bright and beau
tiful.


"I told you so! said Captain Jack,
winking and nodding with all his might.


The poor fellow seemed heartily TO
enjoy the homage we paid to his wife
and child-for there was a baby in the
boatman's home, a yellow-haired, blue
eyed infant, some such a child as would
delight the eye and heart of a painter.


Ralph, uncOnsciously enough, fell
into habit of lounginglaway the b ST
part of his time in the house by the
shore. And almost any hour IN the day
one might hear his pleasant voice read
= L A.