The time was drawing near to the Christmas holidays—a season always hitherto observed by the Lyons with great festivity—when they had been unbounded in their hospitality and munificent in their presents. On this occasion, some five or six days before Christmas, General Lyon sent Dick to Richmond, armed with a handful of blank checks signed and left to be filled up at pleasure, and commissioned to purchase the most elegant and appropriate holiday gifts that he could find for every member of the family and every household servant; but above all, to get a handsome perambulator, a crib bedstead, and—a hobby horse for Master Leonard. “Good gracious me, grandpa!” had been Anna’s exclamation on hearing of this last item, “what on earth do you think a baby of a few weeks old can do with a hobby horse?” “I don’t know, my dear, but I wish to give it to him.” “He won’t be able to sit on it for three years to come.” “And I may not live to see that time, my dear, and as I wish to give it to him I must do so now. It can be kept for him, you know. And now, while we are on the subject, I wish to ask you to have one of the many rooms in this house fitted up as a play-room for him. Let it be as near the nursery as possible; and whatever childish treasures I may purchase may be put there and kept until he is old enough to enjoy them.” This conversation had taken place in the presence of Drusilla; but as no part of it had been addressed to her, she only expressed her gratitude for the intended kindness by glancing thankfully from one speaker to the other. But she felt more strongly than ever that, however reluctant she might be to announce her intended departure from such kind friends, it was incumbent upon her to do so before they should make any material change in their household arrangements for her sake. So after a little hesitation she commenced: “Dear friends, while ever I live in this world I shall remember your goodness to me, and with my last breath I shall pray Heaven to bless you for it. But——” “We have pleased _ourselves_ in this, my dear; so say nothing more about it,” smiled the old gentleman, laying his hand kindly on her head. “Thanks—a thousand thanks, dear sir; but I feel that I must soon leave you——” “Leave us!” echoed General Lyon, Anna and Dick all in a breath. “It is time for me to return to my home,” she said, gently. “Your home, Drusilla!” said General Lyon, in a grave and tender voice. “Poor child, where will you find so proper a home as this, where your relations with us give you the right to stay, and where our affection for you makes you more than welcome?” “Nowhere, indeed, sir, but in the house provided for me, by—_my husband_,” answered Drusilla, breathing the last two words in a scarcely audible tone. “Ah! he has come to his senses; he has written and entreated you to join him. For the sake of my faith in human nature I am glad that he has done so,” said the General.