from your uncle, and was very sorry to hear it, dear
boy."

"I suppose my uncle told you why--just as I had come into a rich
inheritance--I applied for sailing orders?"

"Yes, Le."

"And why, though now I would like to resign, I cannot, in honor, do so?"

"He told me all, Le."

"I shall be gone for three years, Aunt Elfrida."

"I know it, and I am very sorry."

"I--I shall leave you all on the second of January--and--and before I go I
would like to have an understanding with you about--about Odalite," said
Le, stammering and blushing as if he had been asking for the hand of his
sweetheart for the first time; but, then, it was so soon after her broken
marriage, and his act seemed so audacious.

The lady turned pale and gripped the edge of the table for support. It had
come, then, the ordeal she had dreaded so much.

"Odalite!" she faltered.

"Yes, Aunt Elfrida; and I should ask your pardon for speaking of my hopes
just now! And I should not presume to do so, only that I am going away so
soon, and am to be gone so long," faltered the lover, blushing more
intensely than before.

"What have you to say of Odalite, then?" inquired the lady.

"Oh, Aunt Elfrida! Can you ask? I wish, first of all, your permission to
correspond with her while I am away, just as I did before, you know! And
then, most of all, I wish that it shall be understood--just as it was
before--that when I return from my next voyage Odalite and I may be
married. And--and, of course, I shall leave the navy then and settle down
with Odalite at Greenbushes--just as it was understood and arranged that
we should do before--before the stranger came to trouble us. That is what
I want and hope and pray for, Aunt Elfrida!" pleaded the lover.

The lady's head was dropped upon her hand while her elbow rested on the
table. She was silent and thoughtful for a few moments, that seemed hours
to Le's anxiety, and then she asked:

"Do you think it right, dear boy, to approach a young girl on the subject
of a second engagement so soon after the disruption of her marriage at the
altar?"

The question was not unkindly put, yet the blush deepened on the youth's
cheek.

"I said that I would not mention the subject now but that I am going away
in so few days, and for years! Nor would I, even under these
circumstances, if it were not that"--he suddenly caught himself up and
stopped. He had been on the brink of involuntarily betraying Odalite's
confidence and ad