ask them."

"They were no less your guests," replied her father.

The girl rose, and came and stood beside him and put her arms
about his neck.

"My proper old Virginian," she cried, rumpling his shock of black
hair.

"In Virginia you would be turned over your father's knee and
spanked," said the man, smiling.

She crept into his lap and kissed him. "You do not love me any
more," she announced. "No one loves me," but she could not
compose her features into a pout because bubbling laughter
insisted upon breaking through.

"The trouble is there are too many who love you," he said. "And
now there is another."

"Indeed!" she cried. "What do you mean?"

"Gahan of Gathol has asked permission to woo you."

The girl sat up very straight and tilted her chin in the air. "I
would not wed with a walking diamond-mine," she said. "I will not
have him."

"I told him as much," replied her father, "and that you were as