She answered her housekeeper’s letter, disclaiming all belief in the story that Capt. Grandiere and Mate Bayard had turned the _Kitty_ and her crew into pirates. And for the rest, told her that they—the Force family—should not return home for some months to come, even if then. Later on there came a letter from Miss Susanna Grandiere respecting her niece. Miss Grandiere wrote in rather a stilted style, after the manner of her old-fashioned romances. She wrote: “All through the beautiful summer, all through the glorious autumn, all through the desolate winter of the past twelve months we have been anticipating the exquisite happiness of beholding you again in the blooming spring, when nature rises from the grave, and arrays herself in fresh and radiant apparel. “But, alas! evil days have fallen upon us. War stalks abroad over our beloved country, spreading ruin, misery and desolation. Brother rises up against brother, and father against son. Friends and neighbors whose hearts and minds were once united in the closest and holiest bonds of friendship and affection, are now severed and estranged in mutual hatred and malignity. “In this spread of affliction and calamity a rumor reaches us to the effect that the condition of your husband’s constitution will detain you in foreign countries for a considerable time to come. “If this report be truthful, and you should contemplate a further sojourn in the Eastern hemisphere, I must implore you still to retain my beloved niece under your protection until you can procure some responsible escort to convey her across the ocean to the home of her childhood. “I should not venture to take the liberty of preferring this request did I not accord the most perfect credence to your protestations of attachment to our beloved child, and of enjoyment in her society, and of the invaluable benefit she herself derives from foreign travel.” This, and much more to the same purpose and in the same style, wrote Miss Grandiere. Mrs. Force showed this letter to Rosemary, and then had a talk with her, and found that the child was quite willing to do whatever her friends should think best. Then Mrs. Force answered the letter, condoling with Miss Grandiere on the state of the country, but also expressing the pleasure she and all her family would feel in keeping little Rosemary with them as long as the child might be permitted to stay. Still later on letters were received from Le. His ship was at Charleston, forming one of the blockading fleet. Late in the summer of that year the Forces went again to the hot baths of Baden-Baden for the benefit of the husband and father’s health, which was giving the whole family much concern. CHAPTER IV ROSEMARY IS STARTLED Strange to say, that while Abel Force seemed in danger of becoming a confirmed invalid, the condition of his delicate brother-in-law improved every day.