ainting, Charlotte, is nothing," he said; "really nothing whatever. You
must not dwell on it again."

"I will not," she said.

Her answer comforted him and he became really brighter and better.

"It is nice to have you all to myself, my little girl; it is very nice.
Not that I grudge you to Hinton; I have a great regard for Hinton; but,
my darling, you and I have been so much to each other. We have never in
all our lives had one quarrel."

"Quarrel, father! of course not. How can those who love as we do
quarrel?"

"Sometimes they do, Lottie. Thank God, such an experience cannot visit
you; but it comes to some and darkens everything. I have known it."

"You have, father?" In spite of herself, Charlotte felt her voice
trembling.

"I had a great and terrible quarrel with my father, Charlotte; my father
who seemed once as close to me as your father is to you. He married
again, and the marriage displeased me, and such bitter words passed
between us, that for years that old man and I did not speak. For years,
the last years of his life, we were absolutely divided. We made it up in
the end; we were one again when he died; but what happened then has
embittered my whole life--my whole life."

Charlotte was silent, though the color was coming into her cheeks and
her heart began to beat.

"And to-day, Lottie," continued Mr. Harman, "to-day your uncle Jasper
told me about my father's little daughter. You have never heard of her;
she was a baby-child when I saw her last. There were many complications
after my father's death; complications which you must take on trust, for
I cannot explain them to you. They led to my never seeing that child
again. Lottie, though she was my little half-sister, she was quite
young, not older than you, and to-day Jasper told me about her. He knows
where she lives; she is married and has children, and is poor. I could
never, never bring myself to look on her face; but some day, not when I
am alive, but some day you may know her; I should like you to know her
some day, and to be kind to her. She has been hardly treated, into that
too I cannot go; but I must set it right. I mean to give her money; you
will not be quite so rich; you won't mind that?"

"Mind it! mind it! Oh, father!" And Charlotte suddenly began to weep;
she could not help that sudden, swift shower, though she struggled hard
to repress it, seeing how her father trembled, and how each moment he
looked more agitated.

"Do you kno