for the government. We may fail--the newspapers must not know yet.
Everyone must think I am simply travelling."

Keineth was silent and perplexed. It did not occur to her to ask her
father why she could not go with him. He had often gone away before and
she had always stayed in the old house with Tante. But it had never
been for a whole year!

Suddenly she cried out: "I'll be very brave, but--oh, Daddy!"

He laughed, although he held her very close.

"Do you think, my dear, I would go away until I felt very certain that
you were going to be happy? I'm not sure how well you'd like it at Aunt
Josephine's--it would be very different. Still--you'd have that French
maid of hers for a nurse and go out with her and Fido for his walk and
ride in the yellow motor and have all kinds of frilled dresses and
feathered hats--" He was imitating Aunt Josephine's voice in a very
funny manner that made Keineth laugh.

Keineth thought very quickly of all the things she loved to do that she
knew Aunt Josephine would not allow her to do, but she did not want to
speak of them, for it might make her Daddy unhappy. Her father went on,
more seriously:

"But I have another plan. I will tell you about It and you may choose
between that and Aunt Josephine's." (Keineth suddenly felt very grown
up.) "Coming up from Washington I ran into Mr. William Lee, an old
friend of mine--a man I knew in college. I used to think the world of
him. I hadn't seen him for fifteen years! He lives in the western part