picturesque old home! with the deep crimson Virginian creeper, the clematis, and honeysuckle covering so much of the front and old porch, and framing the handsome mullioned windows; the grand old avenue stretching away from the house at least a quarter of a mile, -just a home to cling to and love with the mellowing halo of remembered joy and sorrow overlived!

"Let us rest here awhile," said the Admiral, pointing to a rustic seat under the first broadspreading oak opposite the porch, "and enjoy the beauty of the scene. I love the old Manor House; it looks to me more beautiful than ever!"

Anne sighed, and they sat down.

"I will tell you," said Anne, "something of the sorrows of the years that have passed over since we sat here, dear friend!"

"Do so if it pain you not too much; it is not curiosity but deep interest that leads me

to ask you of yourself and my dear lost friend, of whose actual fate I know nothing!" said the Admiral feelingly.

CHAPTER IV.

"I

ANNE'S STORY.

WILL tell you all," began Anne; "I

can bear to do so now, and indeed would wish to unburden my heart to you, for the agony of the trial is past. God has brought me mercifully through that sad, weary time. You were afloat, I knew, far, far away, or I would have turned to you for help, dear sir."

"Which should gladly have been given to you in every possible way."

"I know, I know!" said Anne warmly; "but alas! such comfort I could not have. It is now three years ago that the sad end of all

my earthly happiness came! the previous years since our marriage had been all happy, only chequered by dear Tom's necessary absences with his ships, no other sorrow but that of the separations his profession compelled ever came near us. He came back from his last voyage in 1753, bringing from China and India innumerable gifts of value and beauty for me and every one of the household; even the Ffrenchs were not forgotten, — sailor-like, a gift for every one! His delight, his happiness in his home and myself, his pride and joy in our sweet child, seemed intense and inexhaustible. Happy as we had ever been before, the past paled in comparison of the fervent joy of our reunion. He occupied himself from morning until night in altering and improving the property, shooting, fishing, and sometimes hunting. Those two years that followed his return home are to me like a blissful dream! no cloud cast the faintest shadow upon our happiness. For

give me if I dwell long upon them and their memory; they are all I have to treasure in my dear husband's place in my heart. Among the friends who came for shooting were naval officers, who urged Tom to appear again at Court and seek employment: two years of idleness, they averred, was more than enough for any man. Impetuous, ambitious, energetic, as you know he was, I could not be selfish enough to chain him to my side, even with rivets of love's own moulding; and so he went to London, and went to Court. His Majesty was very gracious, he wrote me word, and the prospect of a ship seemed imminent. After a short spell of gaiety he returned, bringing fashionable friends back with him for the autumn shooting.

Those were very merry days, such as you can remember here! Merry suppers of an evening, and tales and songs beguiled the time. But one new habit pained me, and that was the