“Mamma, what do you think about it?” asked Herbert.

“I do not know that we have any warrant for the idea in the Scriptures,” she answered; “it seems to be one of the things that is not revealed; yet I see no harm in taking comfort in the thought that it may be so.  My poor lonely darling!  I am glad she had that consolation.  Ah, papa, what a different wedding from mine!”

“Yes,” he said, “and from what we thought hers would be.  But I trust she will never see cause to regret the step she has taken.  Lester is worth saving even at the sacrifice she has made.”

His daughter looked at him with glistening eyes.  “Thank you, papa, that is a good thought, and consoles me greatly for both our darling and ourselves.”

She went on with the reading of the letter; there were but a few more sentences; then, while the others discussed its contents, Violet stole quietly from the room, unobserved as she thought.  But in that she was mistaken.  Her mother’s eyes followed her with a look of love and sympathy.

“Dear child!” she said in a low aside to her father, “she misses Elsie sorely; I sometimes think almost more than I do, they were so inseparable and so strongly attached.”

Vi’s heart was very full, for Elsie’s marriage, though far, far from being so great a sorrow as the death of their father, seemed in some respects even more the breaking up of a life that had been very sweet.

She sought the studio she and Elsie had shared together (how lonely and deserted it seemed!) and there gave vent to her feelings in a burst of tears.

“O Elsie, darling! we were so happy together! such dear friends! with never a disagreement, hardly a thought unshared!  And now I am alone! all alone!”

She had unconsciously spoken aloud.  A soft sweet voice echoed the last word.

“Alone! ah, my darling, no! not while your mother lives.  You and I must cling the closer together, Vi dearest,” the voice went on, while two loving arms enfolded her and a gentle kiss was imprinted upon cheek and brow.

“Dearest mamma!” cried Violet, returning the caress, “forgive me that I should indulge in such grief while you are left me—­you and your dear love, the greatest of earthly treasures.”

“Yes, dear child, your grief is very natural.  These changes, though not unmixed calamities, are one of the hard conditions of life in this lower world, dear daughter; but we must not let them mar our peace and happiness; let us rejoice over the blessings that are left, rather than weep for those that are gone.”

“I will, mamma,” Violet said, wiping away her tears.  “Ah, how much I still have to rejoice in and be thankful for!”

“Yes, dear, we both have! and not the least the love of Him who has said, ‘Lo, I am with you alway.’  Oh the joy, the bliss of knowing that nothing can ever part us from Him!  And then to know, too, that some day we shall all be together in His immediate presence, beholding His face and bearing His image!”