“Nothing of that sort could have happened without our having heard of it before this. The authorities at Washington would have received the news, and it would have been in all the papers. Some survivor would have escaped to the nearest telegraph station and sent the message flying to Washington,” said Cleve. “Oh, yes—certainly. But I never thought of that! It is a real relief to me! I hope I may get a letter before I go! If I do not, and could have my own way, I would sacrifice the passage and wait here until I could hear from Judy. But Mr. Walling says it is absolutely necessary that I should go no later certainly than the day set for sailing.” “But if a letter should come we will immediately send it after you,” said Palma. “Thank you, cousin, dear; I know that you will do all that you can. Well, I have learned one lesson from all this,” said Ran so solemnly that both his companions looked up inquiringly, and Palma asked: “What is it, Cousin Randolph?” “It is this: If Heaven ever should bring my dear Judy and myself together again I will never part with her—no, never while we both shall live! Nothing shall ever part us again except the will of Heaven!” “But how about school and college that was to have prepared you both for the sphere of life to which you are called?” Palma inquired with some little amusement. “Oh, bother that! It was all the nonsense about ‘the sphere of life to which we are called’ that parted Judy and me! And it shall never part us again! We will go to school and college, but we need not part and live in school and college. We will marry and go to housekeeping in some city where there are educational advantages. I will attend the college courses. Judy shall have teachers at home. And so we will live until we are polished up bright enough to show ourselves to my grandfather’s neighbors and tenants at Haymore. Then we will settle there for good, and no one will ever know that the successors of Squire Hay were first of all a pair of little ragamuffins and ignoramuses from a California mining camp! Yes, that is what I will do, and no prudence, and no policy, and no consideration for ‘that sphere of life to which we are called,’ nor for anything else but Judy herself, shall influence me! When we meet again we shall be married out of hand and nothing but death shall part us! When we meet again! But when will that be? Ah, me!” sighed poor Ran. There came a rap at the door, and the “boy” put in his head and said: “The lady and ge’men would come up, sir, which they said there wasn’t no call to send up no card,” then withdrew his head and ran away. The three cousins looked up to see a tall, martial-looking man with a gray mustache, and clothed in a military overcoat and fatigue cap, enter the room with a slender, graceful girl, in a long gray cloth ulster and a little gray plush hat, hanging on his arm.