mornings and evenings, and read this book with me, Elsie?"

"Oh! yes, ma'am, dearly!" exclaimed the child, her eyes sparkling
with pleasure.

"Come then this evening, if you like; and now goodbye for the
present." And pressing another kiss on the child's cheek, she left
her and went back to her own room, where she found her friend
Adelaide Dinsmore, a young lady near her own age, and the eldest
daughter of the family. Adelaide was seated on a sofa, busily
employed with some fancy work.

"You see I am making myself quite at home," she said, looking up
as Rose entered. "I cannot imagine where you have been all this
time."

"Can you not? In the school-room, talking with little Elsie. Do
you know, Adelaide, I thought she was your sister; but she tells
me not."

"No, she is Horace's child. I supposed you knew; but if you do
not, I may just as well tell you the whole story. Horace was a
very wild boy, petted and spoiled, and always used to having his
own way; and when he was about seventeen--quite a forward youth he
was too--he must needs go to New Orleans to spend some months with
a schoolmate; and there he met, and fell desperately in love with,
a very beautiful girl a year or two younger than himself, an
orphan and very wealthy. Fearing that objections would be made on
the score of their youth, etc., etc., he persuaded her to consent
to a private marriage, and they had been man and wife for some