Vi put her arms about his neck. "The dearest, kindest grandpa and guardian that ever anybody had!" she said, giving him a kiss of ardent affection.
"Well, if you, sir, and mamma are both on the captain"s side, I suppose it won"t do for me to reject him. But you say my note isn"t a rejection, so will you please give it to him? And if he isn"t satisfied to take it for no and let me alone on the subject, he may wait a year or two and see if--if he still feels toward me as he does now, and perhaps--only perhaps--if he hasn"t changed his mind and asks again----"
"You may say yes?" Mr. Dinsmore asked as she broke off in confusion.
"Oh, grandpa, say what you think best! only don"t make it too easy for him," she said, with an arch smile, but blushing deeply.
"I think," said Mr. Dinsmore, "I shall only give him your note without any additions of my own, and leave him to carry on further negotiations, or not, as he sees fit."
Capt. Raymond did not take Vi"s answer as a decided rejection, and within twenty-four hours had won from her an acknowledgment that she was not indifferent to him, and persuaded her to promise him her hand at some far-off future day. All seemed well contented with the arrangement, and the week that followed was a very delightful one to the lovers.
In the mean time his Christmas gifts to his children had been received by them with great joy. Especially did Max and Lulu rejoice over the opportunity now afforded them to open their hearts to their father and tell him all their grievances.
He had written to both Mr. Fox and Mrs. Scrimp directing his gifts to be delivered into the children"s own hands without any examination, and never to be taken from them. Also that they be allowed to spend their Christmas together.
So Max was permitted to go to Mrs. Scrimp"s to spend the day with his sisters, and was well pleased to do so when he learned that that lady would not be at home, having accepted an invitation to take her Christmas dinner elsewhere.
Ann, who was left at home to look after the children, gave them an excellent dinner, and Max, having found some money in his desk, came provided with candies.
They compared presents, and spent some time over the books their father had sent, then Max and Lulu decided that it would be best to write now to their father, thanking him for his gifts and telling him all they had so long wanted him to know.
Lulu compressed what she had to say into a few lines--her love, thanks, longing to see papa, Gracie"s feebleness, and her own belief that it was all because she did not get enough to eat; an acknowledgment that she was saucy to "Aunt Beulah," and sometimes helped herself to food, but excusing it on the plea that otherwise she too would be half starved; and that poor Max was often beaten and abused by Mr. Fox for just nothing at all.
Max"s letter was much longer, as he went more into detail, and was not finished for several days. When it was he inclosed it and Lulu"s, which she had given into his charge, in one of the envelopes that he had found in his desk ready stamped and directed, and mailed it to his father.
These letters reached Ion on New Year"s morning. The captain read them with deep concern, first to himself, then to Mrs. Travilla and Violet, as they happened to be alone together in the parlor.
The hearts of both ladies were deeply touched, and their eyes filled with tears as they listened to the story of the wrongs of the poor motherless children.
"Oh, captain, you will not leave them there where they are so ill used?"
Vi said almost imploringly; "it breaks my heart to think of their sufferings!"
"Don"t let it distress you, my dear girl," he replied soothingly; "we should perhaps make some allowance for unintentional exaggeration. There are always two sides to a story, and we have but one here."
"But told in a very straightforward way," Elsie said with warmth. "Both letters seem to me to bear the stamp of truth. Depend upon, it, captain, there is good ground for their complaints."
"I fear so," he said, "and am quite as anxious, my dear Mrs. Travilla, as you could wish to set my dear children free from such tyranny; but what can I do? In obedience to orders, I must return to my vessel to-morrow and sail at once for a distant foreign port. I cannot go to see about my darlings, and I know of no better place to put them. I shall, however, write to Mrs. Scrimp, directing her to have immediately the best medical advice for Gracie, and to follow it, feeding her as the doctor directs.
Also always to give Lulu as much as she wants of good, plain, wholesome food. I shall also write to Fox, giving very particular directions in regard to the management of my son."
CHAPTER XV.
"Great minds, like heaven, are pleased in doing good."
--_Rowe_.
Capt. Raymond"s departure left Violet more lonely than his coming had found her, much as she was at that time missing her elder sister and brother.
They were to correspond, but as he would sail immediately for a foreign port, the exchange of letters between them could not, of course, be very frequent.
Her mother, grandpa, and Grandma Rose all sympathized with her in the grief of separation from the one who had become so dear, and exerted themselves to cheer and comfort her.
She and her mamma were bosom companions, and had many a confidential chat about the captain and his poor children, the desire to rescue the latter from their tormentors and make them very happy growing in the hearts of both.
As the captain had not enjoined secrecy upon them in regard to the letters of Max and Lulu, and it was so much the habit of both to speak freely to Mr. and Mrs. Dinsmore--especially the former--of all that interested themselves, it was not long before they too had heard, with deep commiseration, the story of the unkind treatment to which Max, Lulu, and Gracie were subjected.
"We must find a way to be of service to them," Mr. Dinsmore said. "Perhaps by inst.i.tuting inquiries among our friends and acquaintances we may hear of some kind and capable person able and willing to take charge of them, and to whom their father would be willing to commit them."
"I wish we could!" Elsie said with a sigh. "I think I can fully sympathize with the poor things, for I have not forgotten how in my early childhood I used to long and weep for the dear mamma who had gone to heaven, and my dear papa away in Europe."
"A very poor sort of father he was then, very culpably neglectful of his little motherless child," Mr. Dinsmore said in a remorseful tone, and regarding her with a tenderly affectionate look.
"But afterward and to this day the very best of fathers," she responded, smiling up at him. "Dear papa, what a debt of grat.i.tude do I not owe to you for all the love, care, and kindness shown by you to me and my children!"
"I feel fully repaid by the love and obedience I receive in return," he said, seating himself on the sofa by Vi"s side and softly stroking her hair.
"Children and grandchildren all rise up and call you blessed, dear papa,"
Elsie said, laying down the embroidery with which she had been busy, and coming to his other side to put her arm about his neck and gaze lovingly into his eyes.
A silent caress as he pa.s.sed his arm around her waist and drew her closer to him was his only response.
"Grandpa and mamma," said Vi, "don"t you think Capt. Raymond is to be pitied? Just think! he has neither father nor mother, brother nor sister!
no near and dear one except his children; and from them he is separated almost all the time."
"Yes," said Mr. Dinsmore, "I do indeed! but am not sorry enough for him to give you up to him yet. I would not allow your mamma to marry till she was several years older than you are now."
"No, sir," said Elsie, smiling, "I well remember that you utterly forbade me to listen to any declarations of love from man or boy, or to think of such things if I could possibly help it."
"Well, you lost nothing by waiting."
"Lost! oh, no, no papa!" she cried, dropping her head upon his shoulder, while a scalding tear fell to the memory of the husband so highly honored, so dearly loved.
"My dear child! my poor dear child!" her father said very low and tenderly, pressing her closer to his side; "the separation is only for the little while of time, the reunion will be for the endless ages of eternity."
"A most sweet and comforting thought, dear father," she said, lifting her head and smiling through her tears; "and with that glad prospect and so many dear ones left me, I am a very happy woman still."
At that moment there was an interruption that for a long time put to flight all thought of effort on behalf of Capt. Raymond"s children: Herbert and Harold came hurrying in with the news that a summons to Roselands had come for their grandpa, grandma, and mother. Mrs. Conly had had another stroke, was senseless, speechless, and apparently dying; also the shock of her seizure had prostrated her father, and Arthur considered him dangerously ill.
The summons was promptly obeyed, and Violet left in the temporary charge of children, house, and servants at Ion.
Mrs. Conly died that night, but the old gentleman lingered for several weeks, during which time his son was a constant attendant at his bedside, either Rose or Elsie almost always sharing the watch and labor of love.
At length all was over: the spirit had returned to G.o.d who gave it, the body had been laid to rest in the family vault. Mr. Dinsmore and his wife and daughter went home to Ion, and life there fell back into its old quiet grooves.
They spoke tenderly of the old grandfather, and kept his memory green in their loving hearts, but he had gone to his grave like a shock of corn fully ripe, and they did not mourn over his death with the sadness they might have felt had it been that of a younger member of the family.
Toward spring Capt. Raymond"s letters became urgent for a speedy marriage.
He expected to be ordered home in June and allowed a rest of some weeks or months. Then he might be sent to some distant quarter of the globe, and not see his native land again for a long while, perhaps years. Under such circ.u.mstances, how could he wait for his little wife? Would not she and her mother and grandfather consent to let him claim her in June?