ound
her mother, and said, "Darling, you too are sad and anxious about my
father. Things are no longer as they used to be. I am no child now; tell
me what he is doing."

"Nonsense," calmly replied the baroness. "I am keeping nothing back from
you. If there really be any reason for your father's frequent absence,
it is our duty to wait till he chooses to communicate it; and this is
not difficult to those who love and trust him as we do."

"And yet your eyes are tearful, and you do seek to hide your anxiety
from me. If you will not, I will ask my father myself."

"No, you shall not," said the baroness, in a tone of decision.

"My father!" cried Lenore; "I hear his step."

The stately form came rapidly toward them. "Good-evening, my home
treasures!" he called out. Then clasping wife and daughter at once in
his arms, he looked so cheerfully at them that the baroness forgot her
anxiety and Lenore her question. The baron sat down between them, and
asked whether they saw any thing unusual about him.

"You are cheerful," said his wife, fondly, "as you always are."

"You have been paying visits," said Lenore; "I know that by your white
cravat."

"Right," replied the baron; "but there's something more: the king has
been graciously pleased to give me the Order my father and grandfather
have both worn, and I am much pleased that the cross should thus become,
as it were, hereditary in our family. And with the Order came a most
gracious letter from the prince."

"How charming!" cried his wife, throwing her arms around him; "I have
longed for this star for some years past. We will put on the
decoration;" and, having done so, she loyally kissed, first her husband,
and then the cross.

"We know indeed," said the baron, "how such things are rated in our
days, and yet I confess that the rank implied by such a decoration is
intensely precious to me. Our family is one of the oldest in the
kingdom, and there has never been a _mesalliance_ among us. However, at
the present time, money is beginning to replace our former privileges,
and even we nobles must take thought for it if we wish to preserve our
families in the same position as ourselves. I must provide for you,
Lenore, and your brother."

"As for me," said Lenore, crossing her arms, "I can do nothing for the
honor of the family. If I marry, which I have, however, no inclination
to do, I must take some other name; and little will my old ancestors, in
armor yonder in the hal