pleasures of home, finds the duties of a wife and mother extremely
irksome, and is not content unless living in a constant whirl of
excitement, a never-ending round of pleasure-parties, balls, concerts,
and other fashionable amusements.

"I cannot join her in it; and so, for years past, we have gone our
separate ways.

"Evelyn, her mother having no time to bestow upon her, has been left
almost entirely to me, and I have earnestly striven to train her up to a
noble Christian womanhood; to cultivate her mind and heart, and give her
a taste for far higher pleasures than those to be found in the giddy
whirl of fashionable follies.

"I think I have already succeeded to some extent; but she is so young
that, of course, much of the work yet remains to be done; and Laura is
not the person to carry it on; also, I think, would not covet the task.

"Lester, if you will undertake her guardianship and receive her into your
family, to be brought up under the influence of your lovely wife and
mother-in-law, I shall die happy. Would it be asking too much, my dear
brother?"

"You could not ask too much of me, Eric," Lester said with emotion; "and
if my Elsie is willing, it shall be as you wish."

Eric expressed his thanks, and his hope that Elsie would not object.

"My darling will not be a troublesome charge," he said; "she has her
faults, of course, but they are not of a kind to make her a disagreeable