comfort and enjoyment, but--"

"Comfort and enjoyment!" she interrupted; "it is here in your arms or by
your side that I find both; nowhere else. But why do you talk so? is
anything wrong?"

"Nothing, except that it seems impossible for me to leave the plantation
for weeks to come, unless I can get a better substitute than I know of
at present."

"Oh, Ned, I am so sorry!" she cried, tears of disappointment springing
to her eyes.

"Don't feel too badly about it, little wife," he said, in a cheery tone;
"it is just possible the right man may turn up before the yacht sails;
and in that case I can go with the rest of you; otherwise I shall hope
to join you before your stay at Nantucket is quite over."

"Not my stay; for I won't go one step of the way without you, unless you
order me!" she added, sportively, and with a vivid blush; "and I'm not
sure that I'll do it even in that case."

"Oh, yes you will," he said, laughingly. "You know you promised to be
always good and obedient on condition that I would love you and keep
you; and I'm doing both to the very best of my ability."

"But you won't be if you send me away from you. No, no; I have a right
to stay with you, and I shall claim it always," she returned, clinging
to him as if she feared an immediate separation.