trouble was.

"I don't think I can tell this one. It wouldn't be polite, and I feel
pretty sure that it isn't going to be a trouble any more."

As she blushed and stammered over these words, Dr. Alec turned
his eyes away to the distant sea, and said so seriously, so tenderly,
that she felt every word and long remembered them

"My child, I don't expect you to love and trust me all at once, but I
do want you to believe that I shall give my whole heart to this new
duty; and if I make mistakes, as I probably shall, no one will grieve
over them more bitterly than I. It is my fault that I am a stranger to
you, when I want to be your best friend. That is one of my
mistakes, and I never repented it more deeply than I do now. Your
father and I had a trouble once, and I thought I could never forgive
him; so I kept away for years. Thank God, we made it all up the
last time I saw him, and he told me then, that if he was forced to
leave her he should bequeath his little girl to me as a token of his
love. I can't fill his place, but I shall try to be a father to her; and if
she learns to love me half as well as she did the good one she has
lost, I shall be a proud and happy man. Will she believe this and
try?"

Something in Uncle Alec's face touched Rose to the heart, and
when he held out his hand with that anxious troubled look in his
eyes, she was moved to put up her innocent lips and seal the
contract with a confiding kiss. The strong arm held her close a
minute, and she felt the broad chest heave once as if with a great
sigh of relief; but not a word was spoken till a tap at the door made