d most anxiously Mr. Graham watched her, waiting impatiently
for the time when she would be able to start for home, as he hoped a
change of place and scene would do much toward restoring both her
health and spirits. Soon after his arrival at Laurel Hill, Mr.
Graham had written to Mr. Livingstone, telling him what he had before
told his wife, and adding, "Of course, my _daughter's_ home will in
future be with me, at Woodlawn, where I shall be happy to see
yourself and family at any time."

This part of the letter he showed to 'Lena, who, after reading it,
seemed for a long time absorbed in thought.

"What is it, darling? Of what are you thinking?" Mr. Graham asked,
at length, and 'Lena, taking the hand which he had laid gently upon
her forehead, replied, "I am thinking of poor grandmother. She is
not happy, now, at Maple Grove. She will be more unhappy should I
leave her, and if you please, I would rather stay there with her. I
can see you every day."

"Do you suppose me cruel enough to separate you from your
grandmother?" interrupted Mr. Graham. "No, no, I am not quite so bad
as that. Woodlawn is large--there are rooms enough--and grandma
shall have her choice, provided it is a reasonable one."

"And your wife--Mrs. Graham? What will she say?" timidly inquired
'Lena, involuntarily shrinking from the very thought of coming in
contact with the little lady who had so recently come up before her
in the new and formidable aspect of _stepmother_!

Mr. Graham did not know himself what she would say, neither did he
care. The fault of his youth once confessed, he felt himself a new
man, able to cope with almost anything, and if in the future his wife
objected to what he knew to be right, it would do her no good, for
henceforth he was to rule his own house. Some such thoughts passed
through his mind, but it would not be proper, he knew, to express
himself thus to 'Lena, so he laughingly replied, "Oh, we'll fix that,
easily enough."

At the time he wrote to Mr. Livingstone, he had also sent a letter to
his wife, announcing his safe return from Europe, and saying that he
should be at home as soon as 'Lena's health would admit of her
traveling. Not wishing to alarm her unnecessarily, he merely said of
Durward, that he had found him at Laurel Hill. To this letter Mrs.
Graham replied immediately, and with a far better grace than her
husband had expected. Very frankly she confessed the unkind part she
had acted tow