face around to look into it. "What has come over you
lately? Some new experience, I am quite sure. Matters are not as they used
to be. I have noticed the change in you for some time. You go whistling
through the house as happy as a bird, and your face is as bright as a new
button. Surely it cannot be because Traverse does not visit us so often?
Yet, I notice if anyone speaks to you about him, you get as 'mum' as you
please. Come, you used to tell me all your little secrets, you know. What's
up, Dexie?"

"Dear papa, I don't know what to tell you," and she stooped and kissed his
cheek. "You may look at things differently than I do, and news which may be
pleasant to me may seem very strange to you."

"Then there is news of some kind, after all? Well, let us have it. I want
to hear the news, good, bad or indifferent. I will try to believe it is
_good_ news, since it has such a happy effect on yourself," and he looked
up at the bright face that was bending over his chair. "Well, you know,
there was a sort of promise between Lancy and me; but I am free from it.
Our last letters have been sent and received, and by and by he is going to
take an English lassie home as his wife."

"You don't say so, and you find it a source of rejoicing! Well, you are a
queer girl, sure enough. Gussie would say you have been jilted."

"But I have not, because it was I who asked to be released from the
promise. If you knew what good friends Lancy and I still remain, you would
not fancy I feel jilted."

"Well, I'm blest if I see the point yet," and he looked at Dexie keenly.

"Please, papa, do not look for it," was the laughing reply; "for if there
be any point to this story, it is not visible to the naked eye, and I doubt
if you could discern it with a microscope itself. But, papa, I do not want
this spoken about yet--Lancy's approaching marriage, I mean. I would never
hear the last of it if Gussie got hold of it, and there is a reason why I
want everyone to suppose that everything is as it used to be."

"Well, you can trust me, little girl; but I say again, I cannot see the
point."

"And I hope you will not get particularly sharp-sighted all at once,
either, papa," she replied, shaking her finger at him; "so don't you go
spying into my little affairs, until I give you liberty. Dear papa, there
is nothing to tell; when there is, you shall hear it the first thing," and
she stooped again and kissed his cheek.

"But why does not Traverse co