carpet awhile, she said, "Mrs. Peters will get me a place by-and-by,
and I s'pose I'll have to be a milliner."

"Do you wish to be one?"

"Why, no; nor mother didn't either, but after father died she had to
do something. Father was a kind of a lawyer, and left her poor."

"Do you wish to go away from here, Rosamond?"

There were tears on the long-fringed eye-lashes as the young girl
replied, "No, sir; I'd like to live here always, but there's nothing
for me to do."

"Unless you go to school. How would you like that?"

"I have no one to pay the bills," and the curly head shook mournfully.

"But I have money, Rosamond, and suppose I say that you shall stay
here and go to school?"

"Oh, sir, _will_ you say so? _May_ I live with you always?" and
forgetting her fear of him in her great joy, Rosamond Leyton crossed
over to where he sat, and laying both her hands upon his shoulder,
continued--"Are you in earnest, Mr. Browning? May I stay? Oh, I'll be
so good to you when you are old and sick!"

It seemed to her that he was old enough to be her father, then, and it
almost seemed so to him. Giving her a very paternal look, he answered,
"Yes, child, you shall stay as long as you like and now go, or Mrs.