But Alice recovered herself at once, and showed him a cheerful
face. "Well, just a few years from now I probably won't even
remember it! I believe hardly anything amounts to as much as we
think it does at the time."

"Well--sometimes it don't."

"What I've been thinking, papa: it seems to me I ought to DO
something."

"What like?"

She looked dreamy, but was obviously serious as she told him:
"Well, I mean I ought to be something besides just a kind of
nobody. I ought to----" She paused.

"What, dearie?"

"Well--there's one thing I'd like to do. I'm sure I COULD do it,
too."

"What?"

"I want to go on the stage: I know I could act." At this, her
father abruptly gave utterance to a feeble cackling of laughter;
and when Alice, surprised and a little offended, pressed him for
his reason, he tried to evade, saying, "Nothing, dearie. I just
thought of something." But she persisted until he had to
explain.