s lot in life was one in which improvement was
not to be expected and scarcely to be desired. He had been perfectly
happy with his wife, and had no desire to marry another, who could not
possibly equal her; and, having no children, he continually thanked his
happy stars that he was free from the troubles and anxieties which were
so often brought upon fathers by their sons and their daughters.

Into this quiet and self-satisfied life came, one morning, a great
surprise in the shape of a beautiful young woman, who entered his office
in Spanish Town, and who stated to him that she was the daughter of his
only sister, and that she had come to live with him. There was an
elderly dame and a young man in company with the beautiful visitor, but
Mr. Delaplaine took no note of them. With his niece's hands in his own,
gazing into the face so like that young face in whose company he had
grown from childhood to manhood, Mr. Delaplaine saw in a flash, that
since the death of his wife until that moment he had never had the least
reason to be content with the world or to be satisfied with his lot.
This was his sister's child come to live with him!

When Mr. Delaplaine sufficiently recovered his ordinary good sense to
understand that there were other things in this world besides the lovely
niece who had so suddenly appeared before him, he remembered that she
had a father, and many questions were asked and answered; and he was
told who Dame Charter was, and why her son came with her. Then the uncle
and the niece walked into the garden, and there talked of Major Bonnet.
Little did Kate know upon this subject, and nothing could her uncle tell
her; but in many and tender words she was assured that this was her home
as long as she chose to live in it, and that it was the most fortunate
thing in the world that Dame Charter had come with her and could stay
with her. Had this not been so, where could he have found such a
guardian angel, such a chaperon, for this tender niece? As for the young
man, it was such rare good luck that he had been able to accompany the
two ladies and give them his protection. He was just the person, Mr.
Delaplaine believed, who would be invaluable to him either on the
plantation or in his counting-house. In any case, here was their home;
and here, too, was the home of his brother-in-law, Bonnet, whenever he
chose to give up his strange fancy for the sea. It was not now to be
thought of that Kate or her father, or eith