pure and beautiful
character, and is still a blessing to the family, and to the
neighborhood in which she resides. Fanny is taller and prettier than
her sister; and, having put away her childish follies, she is quite a
dignified personage.

Mighty events had transpired since they were children, and the country
was entering upon the second year of the great civil war, which
desolated the sunny South, and carried mourning to almost every
household of the free North. Richard Grant had already distinguished
himself as a captain in a popular New York regiment, of which the Rev.
Ogden Newman, whilom Noddy, was the chaplain.

Mr. Grant had retired from active business, and had been succeeded by
Mr. Sherwood, his clerk, who, having a high appreciation of the
excellent character of Bertha, was about to enter into more intimate
relations with his employer and predecessor in business. Bertha was to
become Mrs. Sherwood in June, and, as Mr. Grant had reluctantly
accepted a financial mission from the government, which compelled him
to visit Europe, it had been arranged that the bridal tour should be a
trip across the Atlantic, in which Fanny was to accompany them. If the
general conduct of Miss Fanny Jane Grant had been sufficiently
meritorious to warrant the extending of the privilege to her, doubtless
she also would have been one of the party, for she had been for two
years a member of the family.

Fanny Jane was a distant relative of the Grants of Woodville. Mr.
Grant had two cousins, John and Edward, the latter of whom--the father
of the wayward girl--had died three years previous to her introduction
to the reader. At the time of his decease, he was in the employ of the
wealthy broker, as a travelling agent. Just before his death, which
occurred in a western city, while conscious that his end was near, he
had written a letter to Mr. Grant, begging him to see that his only
child was properly cared for when he could no longer watch over her.

Edward Grant's wife had been dead several years. At her decease Fanny
Jane had been committed to the care of her father's brother, then
residing in Illinois. Mr. Grant, impressed by the solemn duty intrusted
to him by his deceased cousin, promptly wrote to the child's uncle, who
was dependent upon his own exertions for his daily bread, offering any
assistance which the orphan might need; but no demand was made upon
him.

A year after the father's death, Mr. Grant's business affairs requ