e said, in tones tremulous with
emotion. "We were almost always alone together, for I never had a brother
or sister to share the love he lavished upon me."

"I'm so, so sorry for you!" said Lulu, slipping an arm round Evelyn's
waist. "I think I know a little how you feel, for my papa is with us only
once in a while for a few days or weeks, and when he goes away again it
nearly breaks my heart."

"But you can hope he may come back again."

"Yes; and I have Max and Gracie; so I am much better off than you."

"And such a sweet, pretty mamma," supplemented Evelyn, sending an
admiring glance across the room to where Violet sat chatting with her
sister Elsie.

"But you have your own mother, and that's a great deal better," returned
Lulu. "Mamma Vi is very beautiful and sweet, and very kind to Max and
Gracie and me, but a step-mother can't be like your own."

"I suppose not quite," Evelyn said with a sigh; "but I have no idea when
I shall see mine again."

"We are situated a good deal alike," remarked Lulu, reflectively. "My
father and your mother are far away in this world, and your father and my
mother are gone to heaven."

"Yes. Oh, don't you sometimes want to go to them there?"

"I'm not good enough--not fit in any way; and I believe I'd rather stay
here--at least while papa does," Lulu said, with some hesitation.

"I hope he may be spared to you for many, many years," said Evelyn,
gently; "at least till you are quite grown up, and perhaps have a family
of children of your own."

"Were you ever so naughty that your father told you you gave him a great
deal of trouble and heartache?" asked Lulu in a tremulous voice and with
starting tears.

"Oh no; no, indeed!" exclaimed Eva, in surprise. "How could I, or any
one, with such a father as mine?"

"No father could be better or kinder than mine," said Lulu, twinkling
away a tear; "and yet I have been so passionate and disobedient that he
has told me that several times."

"Oh, don't ever be so again; for if you do your poor heart will ache so
terribly over it when he is taken away from you," Evelyn said with
emotion, and pressing Lulu's hand affectionately in hers. "Oh, I can
never be thankful enough," she went on, "that the day my dear father was
called home he said to me, 'My darling, you have been nothing but a
blessing and comfort to me since the day you were born.'"

"My father can never say that to me; I have already put it out of his
power," thought Lulu