deserted creature absolutely refused; she could never forget that
she had disgraced them. The good Sister of Charity won her
confidence. A retreat which would hide her from the world, and
devote her to religion for the rest of her days, was the one end
to her wasted life that she longed for. That end was attained in
a Priory of Benedictine Nuns, established in France. There she
found protection and peace--there she passed the remaining years
of her life among devoted Sister-friends--and there she died a
quiet and even a happy death.

"You will now understand how my mother's grateful remembrance
associated her with the interests of more than one community of
Nuns; and you will not need to be told what she had in mind when
she obtained my father's promise at the time of her last illness.

"He at once proposed to bequeath the house as a free gift to the
Benedictines. My mother thanked him and refused. She was thinking
of me. 'If our son fails to inherit the house from his father,'
she said, 'it is only right that he should have the value of the
house in money. Let it be sold.'

"So here I am--rich already--with this additional sum of money in
my banker's care.

"My idea is to invest it in the Funds, and to let it thrive at
interest, until I grow older, and retire perhaps from service in
the Navy. The later years of my life may well be devoted to the
founding of a charitable institution, which I myself can
establish and direct. If I die first--oh, there is a chance of
it! We may have a naval war, perhaps, or I may turn out one of