"How glad, how thankful I am that we came to Viamede this winter," Elsie said, after a moment's silent musing; "grandpa has so entirely recovered his health in consequence, a favorable opening has been found for Dick, and four other people are made happy in mutual love who might, perhaps, never have met otherwise--all this, beside dear Mrs. Carrington having the melancholy pleasure of nursing her poor nephew through his last illness. How true is the promise, 'In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.'" "You take a very unselfish delight in other people's happiness, cousin," Molly remarked. "And Isa is very happy." "Yes, and Cyril too," Elsie answered with a smile. "I sometimes think my Elsie half envies them--thinking of Lester so far away. But her turn will come too, I trust, poor, dear child!" May was well advanced, the weather already very warm in the Teche country when at last our friends set out upon their return to their more northern homes. Everything there was looking very lovely on their arrival. Friends, kindred and servants rejoiced over their return, all in good health. Elsie and her children took up again the old, quiet life at Ion, missing Molly not a little, and feeling afresh, for a time, the absence of one far nearer and dearer. Mr. and Mrs. Dinsmore spent some weeks with their other children, then again made their home at Ion, at Elsie's urgent solicitation. In the loneliness of her widowhood she knew not how to do without her father. In order to secure her cousin Elsie's presence at her wedding, Isa insisted upon a very quiet one, only relatives and very intimate friends to be invited to witness the ceremony; but to please her mother and Virginia, there was afterward a brilliant reception. The marriage took place the last of June, and the next two months were spent principally among Cyril's relatives at the North. CHAPTER XVIII. "The sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free!" --_Proctor._ The summer vacation brought Edward Travilla home just in time for his cousin Isa's wedding. He had grown so manly and so like his father in appearance that at sight of him his mother was much overcome. His first, his warmest, tenderest greeting was for her. He held her to his heart, his own too full for speech, while she wept upon his shoulder. But only for a moment; lifting her head, she gazed long and searchingly into his face, then, with a sigh of relief, "Thank God," she whispered, "that I can believe my boy has come back to me as pure and innocent as he went!" "I hope so, mother; your love, your teachings and my father's have been my safeguard in many an hour of temptation," he answered with emotion. "Did you not seek help from above, my son?" she asked gently. "Yes, mother; you had taught me to do so, and I knew that you, too, were daily seeking it for me."