Gracie glanced up smilingly into her father's face and nestled closer to
him.

"Just as I am of mine," said his answering look and smile as he drew
her closer still.

But Mr. Dinsmore's story was going on.

"It was Captain Coffin's custom to bring home some very desirable gift
to his little girl whenever he returned from a voyage. At one time, when
about to sail for the other side of the Atlantic, he said to her that he
was determined on this voyage to find and bring home to her something
that no other little girl ever had or ever could have."

"Oh, grandpa, what could that be?" exclaimed little Walter.

"Wait a moment and you shall hear," was the reply.

"What the captain brought on coming back was a wax baby, a very
life-like representation of an infant six months old. He said it was a
wax cast of the Dauphin of France, that poor unfortunate son of Louis
XVI. and Marie Antoinette; that he had found it in a convent, and paid
for it a sum of money so enormous that he would never tell any one, not
even his wife, how large it was."

"But it isn't in existence now, at this late day, surely?" Mrs. Dinsmore
remarked inquiringly, as her husband paused in his narrative.

"It is claimed that it is by those who have such a thing in possession,
and I presume they tell the truth. It has always been preserved with