lips. "No, I have no fault to find with my eldest daughter, and yet----"
He paused, gazing searchingly and somewhat sadly into the bright young
face.

"Oh, papa, what is it?" she asked, putting her arms about his neck and
gazing with ardent affection and questioning anxiety up into his eyes.
"You looked at me so strangely two or three times to-night, and I so
feared you were displeased with me that I could not go to my bed without
first coming to ask you about it, and get a kiss of forgiveness if I have
displeased you in any way."

"No, daughter, you have not displeased me, but--your father is so
selfish," he sighed, "that he can scarce brook the thought that someone
else may some day oust him from the first place in his dear child's
heart."

"Oh, papa!" she exclaimed in half reproachful tones, "how can you be
troubled with any such idea as that? don't you know that I love _you_ ten
thousand times better than anybody else in the whole wide world? I just
_love_ to belong to you, and I always shall," she added, laying her head
on his breast and gazing with ardent affection up into his eyes. "Besides,
I am only a little girl yet, as you've told me over and over again, and
must not think about beaux and lovers for at least five or six years to
come; and I'm sure I don't want to think of them at all so long as I have
my own dear father to love and care for me."

"That is right," he said, holding her close; "I think I can say with truth
that I love my dear daughter much too well ever to intentionally stand in
the way of her happiness, but I feel sure that the best place for her, for
the next six or eight years at least, will be in her father's house,