l, why not? This is the time I have
arranged to take my vacation, and there is nothing to hinder my going
down to Kentucky after her. Jack Sherman is always urging me to visit
Locust, and I'll give the child a surprise. She dislikes to travel with
only Eliot."

Eugenia knew nothing of the telegram her Cousin Elizabeth received next
morning, so several days later she could hardly believe her eyes, when
she saw her father spring out of the carriage in front of the house, and
come bounding up the steps, between the white pillars of the
vine-covered porch. Tall, handsome, smiling, he came toward her, his
arms outstretched, and, after one amazed glance, she ran into them,
crying, "Oh, papa! papa! I'm so glad!"

"I couldn't do without my little girl any longer," he said. "I had to
come for her."

Mrs. Sherman came out just then with the warmest of welcomes, and
Eugenia rushed up-stairs for a moment, to tell Betty about her surprise
and to hurry Joyce and Lloyd down to greet her father.

"I am going to begin all over again now," she said to herself, as she
went up the stairs. "I'll be as good, and sweet to him as he deserves.
I'll let him see how proud I am of him, too. It's queer, but somehow I
really love him better since I have thought so much about Betty's Memory
roads. Well, I shall certainly try my best from now on to leave a happy
one behind for him."

He gave her the ring that night, the little golden lover's knot with the
name of Tusitala engraved inside, to remind her always of the Road of
the Loving Heart, that she might leave in the world after her. With her
head on his shoulder and his arm around her, they talked long, and
freely together, as they had never done before.

Once he looked at her with a quizzical little smile. "I never realised
until to-night," he said, "how old you are, or how companionable you can
be. But we'll always be good chums after this, won't we?"

"Yes," she answered, giving his ear a playful tweak, and mischievously
imitating his tone and manner. "And I never realised until to-night how
young you are, or how companionable _you_ can be. I believe that if
you'd been at this house party from the beginning, you'd have been
playing with us by this time, like Bobby and the other boys.

"I must show this ring to the girls," she said, presently, when they
heard Mrs. Sherman coming back. Then she hesitated, her eyes sparkling
with the pleasure of a sudden thought.

"Oh, papa, I'd like to