And great was the joy of the young owner of the Curlew when he learned that though she was a total wreck, not a single soul had been lost in her. CHAPTER XXV. "Those that he loved so long and sees no more, Loved and still loves,--not dead, but gone before,-- He gathers round him." --_Rogers._ The morning was but dull and dreary, for though the storm had spent itself, the sky was obscured with clouds and the sea still wrought tempestuously; but its sullen roar may, perchance, have been as favorable to the prolonged slumbers of our worn-out friends, whom the tempest had robbed of so many hours of their accustomed sleep, as the lack of brightness in the sky and atmosphere. However that may have been, most of them, retiring about dawn of day, slept on till noon, or near it. In Mrs. Travilla's cottage the family gathered round the breakfast table at the usual hour. The meal was nearly concluded when a servant brought in the morning paper and handed it to Mr. Dinsmore. "I fear that brings news of many disasters caused by the storm, especially on the Atlantic seaboard," remarked his daughter as he took it up. "Altogether likely," was his rejoinder. Then as he ran his eye down the long list of casualties, "Why, what is this?" he exclaimed, and went on to read aloud. "Went ashore last night at Ocean Beach, the Curlew, a pleasure yacht belonging to W. V. Tallis; Captain Collins. She is a total wreck, but no lives were lost, passengers and crew being taken off by the men of Life-Saving Station No. --. List of passengers, Mr. W. V. Tallis, Mr. Edward Travilla, Mr. Charles Perrine, Miss Mary Keith, Miss Amy Fletcher, and Miss Ella Neff." There was a moment of astonished silence, then "Violet!" gasped the mother, turning deathly pale. "She was evidently not on board," Mr. Dinsmore hastened to reply, "or else her name was carelessly omitted in the list, for it says distinctly, 'No lives were lost.'" "I hope you are right, Horace," Mrs. Conly remarked, "but if she were my child I shouldn't have any peace till I knew all about it." "There isn't the least probability that if a life had been lost the reporter would have failed to say so," returned Mr. Dinsmore with some severity of tone. "Of course you are in the right, Horace, you always are," she said, bridling. "Well," remarked Virginia, "I'm astonished, I must own, that such pattern good children should go off on such an expedition without so much as saying by your leave to either mother or guardian." "I have just said that I am morally certain Violet did not go," said Mr. Dinsmore. "And I do not blame Edward that he did," added the mother in her sweet, gentle tones; "he is old enough now to decide such matters for himself in the absence of his natural guardians. Also he knows me well enough to judge pretty correctly whether I would approve or not, and I should not have objected had I been there."