"But one evening her guardian came suddenly upon us, as we sat together
in her boudoir, and in a great passion ordered me out of the house.

"Elsie was terribly frightened and I said, 'I will go to-night for peace
sake; but Elsie is my wife, and to-morrow I shall come and claim her as
such, and I think you'll find I have the law on my side.' Elsie clung to
me and wept bitterly; but I comforted her with the assurance that the
parting was only for a few hours."

Mr. Dinsmore's voice faltered. He paused a moment, then went on in tones
husky with emotion.

"We never saw each other again. When I went back in the morning the
house was closed and quite deserted; not even a servant in it, and I
knew not where to look for my lost wife.

"I went back to my hotel and there found my father waiting for me in my
room. He was very angry about my marriage, the news of which had brought
him from home. He made me go back with him at once and sent me North to
college. I heard nothing of my wife for months, and then only that she
was dead and had left me a little daughter."

"And that was our mamma!" cried the children, once more crowding about
her to lavish caresses upon her.

They thanked their grandfather for his story, and Vi looking in at the
closet door again, said in her most coaxing tones, "Mamma, I should so,
_so_ like to play a little with some of those lovely things; and I would
be very careful not to spoil them."

"Not now, daughter, though perhaps I may allow it some day when you are
older. But see here! will not these do quite as well?"

And rising, Mrs. Travilla opened the door of another closet displaying
to the children's delighted eyes other toys as fine and in as great
profusion and variety as those she considered sacred to her mother's
memory.

"Oh, yes, yes, mamma! how lovely! how kind you are! are they for us?"
they exclaimed in joyous tones.

"Yes," she said, "I bought them for you while we were in New Orleans,
and you shall play with them whenever you like. And now we will lock the
doors and go down to dress for dinner. The first bell is ringing."

After dinner the play-room and the contents of the two closets were
shown to Mrs. Dinsmore, Rosie, and the Carringtons: then Mrs. Travilla
locked the door of the one that held the treasured relics of her
departed mother, and carried away the key.

Chapter Twenty-fifth.

"She'd lift the teapot lid
To peep at what was in it,
Or tilt the kettle if you