“To occupy his mind and make him forget his troubles. He has had so much trouble. He lost all his children in their childhood, with the exception of one, who lived to be about eighteen years old, and was then lost on the _Eagle_, when that fine ship was wrecked on the coast of Morocco.” “Oh, what a terrible misfortune!” sighed Em. “That catastrophe broke his wife’s heart. She died within a few weeks after the news of the wreck came. And now for years past the brave old man has been a childless widower. Still I think he bore up much better when in active service than he does now, for since his retirement he has been subject to fits of deepest melancholy. I spend all the time I can with him; but I am only his nephew. I cannot take the place of his son.” “I know you must be a great comfort to him, for all that,” said Em., in earnest sympathy. “I don’t know. He wants me to resign my commission in the navy and live with him altogether.” “Oh, I wish you would! I wish you would!” impulsively exclaimed the girl. And then she suddenly recollected herself and blushed deeply at her own impetuous words. “Most certainly I will do so, since you wish it!” replied the young man with so much comic solemnity that Em. broke into a peal of silvery laughter. Then growing grave in her turn she said: “I do not think you ought to make fun of what I said, Mr. Bruce.” “‘Fun!’ You think I am jesting?” “Of course I do. You certainly do not mean to say that you are in earnest.” “Indeed I do—that is, if—do you know that I have never ceased to think of you since that day I first met you?” he whispered earnestly. Em. flushed and paled and began to tremble. “Never ceased to think of you, and longed to see you again. And now I do see you, I wish never to lose sight of you more. Do you understand me, little Em.?” he breathed, trying to take her hand; but she withdrew it gently and folded her arms. “There, I will not touch your hand if you do not wish me to do so. But do you understand me, dear little Em.?” “I—think—I—Oh! but——” muttered the girl, incoherently, and every moment growing more and more confused and—distressed or delighted, she could hardly know which, so mixed were her emotions. “This is what I mean, dear girl—that your presence in the neighborhood makes the place so much more attractive to me that, if you are to be a permanent resident of the county, I shall indeed be strongly tempted to forego all my cherished hopes of a career in the navy and be delighted to settle down with my uncle at his retreat.” “Just to see me once in a while?” inquired Em. in low, tremulous, incredulous tones. “Just to see you as often as I may be permitted to do so. You are to live here, then, I am to understand?” “Yes; at the Wilderness. My father is the new overseer.” “In-deed!” slowly responded Ronald Bruce.