"Oh, Le, why did you not, when you meant to do so?"

"My darling, when I inherited Greenbushes, I fully intended to leave the
navy, marry my betrothed, and settle down on our farm. But, when I came
home and learned that she was to be married to some one else, I did the
very opposite thing to resigning. I wrote to the department and asked for
sailing orders, because I could not bear to stay in the neighborhood, or
even in the country, after such a bitter disappointment."

"Oh, my dear Le!"

"Never mind, love. It will all come right now. I put Greenbushes in the
hands of Beever and Copp, and waited to hear from the department. I
received my sailing orders yesterday. That was the reason why I spoke to
your father and asked for this interview."

"Oh, Le! Le! can you not yet resign?" pleaded Odalite.

"Yes, dear, of course I can, but not with honor. Having asked for these
orders, I must obey them. I must not trifle with duty, dear Odalite," he
answered, gravely.

"Oh, Le, and there seems no real necessity for you to go!"

"Honor, love," gently suggested the youth.

"When do you leave us, and where are you going this time, Le?"

"I leave on the second of January, to join my ship at the Brooklyn Navy
Yard, to sail in a few days after for the Pacific coast."

"Oh, I am so sorry! But I ought not to say so, Le. I ought not to say
anything to make it harder to do your duty, and I will not."

"Dearest Odalite, will you say something that will make it easy for me to
do my duty? Will you say that you will correspond with me regularly while
I am gone, as you did during my first voyage? And will you promise that
when I return, three years hence, and leave the service--as I can with
honor then--you will give me this dear hand of yours, which I cannot help
feeling belongs to me only, and has belonged to me of right all the time?
Say you will give me your hand, Odalite! Shall I go away happy in the
knowledge that you are to be my wife on my return?"

"Oh, yes! Yes, Le! With all my heart!" she impulsively answered. Then,
catching her breath in a spasmodic way, as some painful thought sped like
an arrow through her heart, she added, in a subdued tone: "But, Le, before
anything of that sort is quite settled between us, I want you to talk with
my mother about it."

"But why? Aunt Elfrida will have no objection. She likes me. She liked our
engagement, before any one came between us," said Le, growing uneasy and
very thoughtful.