have to go walking, walking, till our feet are sore
and tired? And we shall not be hungry, and be afraid of spending our
money? And we shall buy new clothes as soon as the old ones are worn
out? O Aunt Nelly, is it true? is it quite true?"

"It is quite true, my poor Minima," I answered.

She looked at me wistfully, with the color coming and going on her face.
Then she climbed up, and lay down beside me, with her arm over me and
her face close to mine.

"O Aunt Nelly!" she cried, "if this had only come while my father was
alive!"

"Minima," I said, after her sobs and tears were ended, "you will always
be my little girl. You shall come and live with me wherever I live."

"Of course," she answered, with the simple trustfulness of a child, "we
are going to live together till we die. You won't send me to school,
will you? You know what school is like now, and you wouldn't like me to
send you to school, would you? If I were a rich, grown-up lady, and you
were a little girl like me, I know what I should do."

"What would you do?" I inquired, laughing.

"I should give you lots of dolls and things," she said, quite seriously,
her brows puckered with anxiety, "and I should let you have
strawberry-jam every day, and I should make every thing as nice as
possible. Of course I should make you learn lessons, whether you liked
it or not, but I should teach you myself, and then I should know nobody
was unkind to you. That's what I should do, Aunt Nelly."

"And that's what I shall do, Minima," I repeated.

We had many things to settle that morning, making our preliminary
arrangements for the spending of my fortune upon many dolls and much
jam. But the conviction was forced upon me that I must be setting about
more important plans. Tardif was still staying in Ville-en-bois,
delaying his departure till I was well enough to see him. I resolved to
get up that evening, as soon as the heat of the day was past, and have a
conversation with him and Monsieur Laurentie.

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-THIRD.

A YEAR'S NEWS.

In the cool of the evening, while the chanting of vespers in the church
close by was faintly audible, I went downstairs into the _salon_. All
the household were gone to the service; but I saw Tardif sitting outside
in my own favorite seat under the sycamore-tree. I sent Minima to call
him to me, bidding her stay out-of-doors herself; and he came in
hurriedly, with a glad light in his deep, honest eyes.

"Thank Go