"But you know you will have to leave Miss Rose."

"Ah! I forgot that," she said a little sadly; but brightening again,
she asked: "Couldn't you invite her to go home with us and spend the
winter? Ah! papa, do! it would be so pleasant to have her."

"No, my dear, it wouldn't do," he replied with a grave shake of the
head.

"Why, papa?" she asked with a look of keen disappointment.

"You are too young to understand why," he said in the same grave tone,
and then relapsed into silence; sitting there for some time stroking
her hair in an absent way, with his eyes on the carpet.

At last he said, "Elsie!" in a soft, low tone that quite made the
little girl start and look up into his face; for she, too, had been in
a deep reverie.

"What, papa?" she asked, and she wondered to see how the color had
spread over his face, and how bright his eyes looked.

"I have been thinking," he said, in a half hesitating way, "that
though it would not do to invite Miss Rose to spend the winter with
us, it might do very nicely to ask her to come and live at the Oaks."

Elsie looked at him for a moment with a bewildered expression; then
suddenly comprehending, her face lighted up.