fathers would be a trifle more ready
to make an eligible match for a daughter of Miss Grace's age. She is
very young, I acknowledge, but I have known some girls to marry even
younger. And you will not even allow her to enter into an engagement?"

"No; I have no desire to rid myself of my daughter; very far from it.
For my first set of children I have a peculiarly tender feeling
because--excepting each other--they have no very near relative but
myself. They were quite young when they lost their mother, and for
years I have felt that I must fill to them the place of both parents
as far as possible, and have tried to do so. As one result," he added
with his pleasant smile, "I find that I am exceedingly loath to give
them up into any other care and keeping."

"But since we are neighbors and distant connections, and my brother
engaged to Miss Lu, you do not absolutely forbid me your house,
captain?"

"No; you may see Grace in my presence--perhaps occasionally out of
it--provided you carefully obey my injunction to refrain from anything
like love-making."

"Thank you, sir; I accept the conditions," was Frank's response, and
the two separated just as Lucilla and Grace appeared at the top of the
stairway near which they had been standing, Frank passing out to the
veranda, the captain moving slowly in the opposite direction.

"There's father now!" exclaimed Grace, tripping down the stairs.
"Papa," as he turned at the sound of her voice and glanced up at her,
"I've been re-arranging my hair. Please tell me if you like it in this
style."

"Certainly, daughter; I like it in any style in which I have ever seen
it arranged," he returned, regarding it critically, but with an
evidently admiring gaze. "I am glad and thankful that you have an
abundance of it--such as it is," he added sportively, taking her hand
in his as she reached his side. Then turning to Lucilla, "And yours,
too, Lulu, seems to be in well-cared-for condition."

"Thank you, papa dear; I like occasionally to hear you call me by that
name so constantly used in the happy days of my childhood."

"Ah! I hope that does not mean that these are not happy days?" he
said, giving her a look of kind and fatherly scrutiny.

"Oh, no, indeed, father! I don't believe there is a happier girl than
I in all this broad land."

"I am thankful for that," he said with a tenderly affectionate look
into her eyes as she stood at his side gazing up into his; "for there
is nothing