near separation
to follow. Debby cherished grief, and felt it a Christian duty to make
much of it, perhaps because her sunny nature would of itself throw it
off too lightly.

At her word all was quickly changed. The two girls forgot the strange
woman to hug the dear old nurse, and finally were escorted by both to
the cab door, Hope crying heartily, Faith showing only misty eyes and
quivering lips, but looking paler than her sister.

It had been arranged that Captain Hosmer, whose business had kept him
with his steamer overnight, should meet his daughters at the pier, and
the cabman had his directions, so whipped up and was off without delay,
leaving poor Debby almost a senseless heap upon the door-step--an
old-fashioned green door on a retired street in the more ancient part
of the suburb--while Mrs. Rollston, in some dismay, bent over her.

But before the house disappeared from view Faith's straining eyes saw
the two slowly mounting the steps together and turned in great content
to say, "I'm glad that friendly lady is to be at Debby's. She has just
helped the poor dear up the steps as kindly as possible. Poor Debby!
She will miss us."

"Yes." Hope's quick tears were already somewhat stayed, and she now
looked brightly out, as they clattered across the bridge into the town
of Portsmouth proper and began to circle swiftly through the narrow
streets.

"But she will feel better in a day or two. And oh! Faith, I can't help
being glad that we are going, can you? We leave Debby, but we go with
father, and such a fine voyage is enough to make any one happy. Ought
we to feel all sorry?"

"No, indeed! Why should we? As you say, we are to go with our father.
That alone is a great delight."

"And, by the way, that lady never told us whether she was American, or
not, did she?"

"Sure enough! Well, we may never see her again, so what does it
matter? I hope we will, though, for I liked her."

"And so did I," was Hope's emphatic rejoinder.

Captain Hosmer opened the cab door for them himself, and gave them the
gaze of wondering approval which he reserved for these fair daughters.
To him their growth, development, and beauty seemed something magical,
incomprehensible. He had left them in the lank, homely, tooth-shedding
period, at the time he placed them in school, and when he returned to
see them graduated, here were two blooming maidens on the very
borderland of charming womanhood. The usual love and pride