CHAPTER VII.
"Her fancy followed him through foaming wares To distant shores." -- Cowper.
Violet in her night-dress and with her beautiful hair unbound and hanging about her like a golden cloud, stood before her dressing-table, gazing through a mist of unshed tears upon a miniature which she held in her hand.
"Ah, where are you now, love ?" she sighed half aloud.
Her mother's voice answered close at her side, in gentle, tender accents, "In God's keeping, my darling.

He is the God of the sea as well as of the land." "Yes, mamma, and his God as well as mine," Violet responded, looking up and smiling through her tears.

"Ah, what comfort in both assurances, and in the precious promise, 'Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest.' It is his and it is mine." "Yes, dearest.

I feel for you in your loneliness," her mother said, putting her arms around her.

"Elsie is very happy in her husband and baby, Edward in his wife; they need me but little, comparatively, but you and I must draw close together and be a comfort and support to each other; shall we not, my love ?" "Yes, indeed, dearest mamma.