“And Alick has signed over to me all his material interest in my fortune! Well, I know he did not need any part of it; but he would have been welcome, oh, so heartily welcome, to the whole. At most, I only should have wanted enough to buy back dear Cedarwood,” said Drusilla to her gossip, Anna, as they sat together in the nursery. “He did right. How _could_ he have done otherwise under the circumstances? Even _you_, with all your loving faith, must have despised him if, after forsaking you, he had taken any part of your fortune,” said Anna. Drusilla blushed intensely, at the bare supposition that her Alick could do anything to make her loyal heart despise him, and she answered warmly: “But he did not do it! He would never do such a thing. If my Alick has ever erred it has been under the influence of some great passion amounting almost to madness! He would not do wrong in cold blood.” Anna did not gainsay her. Miss Lyon had quite given up arguing with the young wife on the subject of her husband’s merits. If Drusilla had chosen to assert that Alexander was the wisest of sages, the bravest of heroes and the best of saints, Anna would not openly have differed with her. But now she turned the conversation from his merits to his movements. “Alick sails for Europe to-morrow,” she said. “Yes, so Mr. Kent says. But do you know what steamer he goes in, Anna? Mr. Kent did not happen to name it, and I shrank from asking him.” “There is but one—the Erie. I suppose, of course, he goes on that. However, on Monday we shall get the New York papers, and then we can examine the list of passengers, and see if his name is among them,” said Anna. And with that answer the young wife had to rest satisfied. CHAPTER VII. HALCYON DAYS. A course of days, composing happy weeks, And they as happy months; the day is still So like the last, as all so firm a pledge Of a congenial future, that the wheels Of pleasure move without the aid of hope.—WORDSWORTH. Very early on Monday morning Jacob Junior was dispatched to Saulsburg to meet the mail and fetch the papers. The messenger was so diligent that he brought in the bag and delivered it to his master while the family sat at breakfast. There were no letters for anybody, but all the last Saturday’s papers had come. General Lyon distributed them. A New York evening journal fell to Anna’s share. She turned immediately to look for the news of the outward bound steamers. She soon found what she was in search of. And as Alick’s name was still a tacitly dropped word in the presence of her grandfather, she silently passed the paper to Drusilla, and pointed to the list of passengers for Liverpool who sailed by the Erie, from New York, on the Saturday previous. Drusilla looked and read among them: “_Mr. Alexander Lyon and two servants._” Drusilla nodded and smiled, saying in a low voice: