fell softly on her pale yellow gown and her dusky hair. The red lips
were parted in a smile as she watched the pretty pageant, and there was
a bright colour in her cheeks.

Mr. Forbes was proud of his handsome little daughter. He admired her
ease of manner, and boasted that she was as self-possessed under all
circumstances as any grown woman he knew. It pleased him to have his
friends predict that she would be a brilliant social success. He was
doing everything in his power to make her that, and yet--sometimes--a
vague fear crossed his mind that she was growing cold and selfish.
Sometimes she seemed far too old and worldly-wise for a child of her
age. He sighed as he looked at her. They were sitting so near each other
that his hand rested on the arm of her chair. Yet he felt that they had
grown widely apart in their long absences.

"What are you thinking about, Eugenia?" he asked, suddenly. She turned
with a little start.

"Oh, I had forgotten that you were there!" she exclaimed. "I was
thinking of Locust, and how glad I would be to get away from this
tiresome place. It's such a bore to do the same thing night after night,
and always watch the same kind of people."

A shadow crossed his face, but she did not see it. She had turned back
to her day-dreams in which he had no part. Happy little day-dreams, of
what was to come with the coming June.