"What have you been doing that you feel entitles you to one?"

"I don't remember."

"Nor I either. So let us to business. Here, take this chair beside me. Do
you know how much you are worth?"

"Not precisely, sir," she answered demurely, taking the chair and folding
her hands pensively in her lap; "but very little, I presume, since you
have given me away for nothing."

"By no means," he said, with a slight smile of amusement at her unwonted
mood. "It was for your own happiness, which is no trifle in my esteem. But
you belong to me still."

She looked at him with glistening eyes. "Thank you, dearest papa; yes, I
do belong to you and always shall. Please excuse my wilful
misunderstanding of your query. I do not know how much money and other
property I own, but have an idea it is a million more or less."

"My dear child!--it is fully three times that."

"Papa! is it indeed?"

"Yes, it was about a million at the time of your Grandfather Grayson's
death, and has increased very much during your mamma's minority and yours;
which you know has been a very long one. You own several stores and a
dwelling house in New Orleans, a fine plantation with between two and
three hundred negroes, and I have invested largely for you in stocks of
various kinds both in your own country and in England. I wish you to